i 


TROUVERES 

AND 

TROUBADOURS 

A  Popular  Treatise 


PIERRE    AUBRY 


TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  SECOND  FRENCH  EDITION 
BY 


G.    SCHIRMER 

NEW  YORK  &  LONDON 
1914 


Copyright,  1914,  by 

G.    SCHIRMER 

24906 


TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE 

This  popular  account  of  Troubadour  Music  is  the 
swan-song  of  a  scholar  of  remarkable  erudition  and 
attainment,  lightened  by  enthusiasm  for  his  subject  and 
sympathy  with  the  general  reader.  PIERRE  AUBRT  died 
in  1910,  as  the  result  of  a  fencing  accident,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-six,  a  time  when  many  men's  activities  are  just 
beginning  to  reach  fruition.  Yet  Pierre  Aubry,  in  his 
short  life,  not  only  covered  a  vast  field  of  research,  but 
gave  to  the  world  practical  results  by  the  score.  The 
references  under  his  name  in  the  Bibliography  (at  end) 
would  do  honor  to  twice  his  years;  and  in  reading  this 
study  of  Troubadours  and  their  music,  described  by 
Mr.  E.  J.  Dent  as  "Medieval  Music  without  tears,"  one 
realises,  with  admiration,  the  author's  skill  in  adapting 
the  fruits  of  his  erudition  to  the  reconstruction  of  at- 
tractive scenes  in  the  life  and  society  of  the  period. 

In  order  that  the  original  texts  of  the  songs  may  be 
followed  without  difficulty,  the  English  translations 
(most  of  them  new)  have  been  made  as  simple  as  possible. 
A  slight  acquaintance  with  Latin  and  French  (with 
due  caution  as  to  the  traps  that  always  lurk  in  'unseens') 
will  enable  the  reader  to  make  out  the  meaning  for 
himself. 


iv  TRANSLATOR'S  NOTE 

In  this  connection,  the  Translator's  grateful  acknow- 
ledgments are  due  to  Miss  Barbara  Smythe,  whose 
London  University  lectures  on  Troubadour  Music  have 
done  much  to  stimulate  interest  in  this  branch  of  medieval 
history. 

The  original  French  work  is  published  in  the  series 
entitled  "Les  Maitres  de  la  Musique,"  alluded  to  on 
page  1,  line  2. 


Table  of  Contents 


Page 

Translator's  Note  iii 

I 

The  Trouveres  and  Troubadours  were  Musicians 

as  well  as  Poets  1 

II 

How  the  Melodies  of  the  Troubadours  and  Trou- 
veres have  come  down  to  us  18 

III 
The  Various  Classes  of  Lyrical  Poetry 

A.  LA  CHANSON  A  PERSONNAGES 

1.  Les  Chansons  d'Histoire  (Ballads)  28 

2.  Les     Chansons     dramatiques       (Dramatic 

Ballads)  32 

3.  Les  Chansons  de  Danse  (Dancing -Songs)  36 

4.  Reverdies  (Spring  Songs)  58 

5.  The  Pastourelles  (Pastorals)  61 

6.  The  Chansons  d'Aube,  Albas  (Dawn-Songs, 

Serenades)  69 

B.  COURTLY  POESY 

1.  Courtly  Poesy  79 

2.  The  Debats,  or  Jeux-partis   (Dialogues)  85 

3.  Religious  Songs  90 

IV 
Troubadours  and  Trouveres  97 

First  Period  of  Lyrical  Activity  98 

Second  Period  107 

Third  Period  120 


vi  Table  of  Contents — continued 


The  Jongleurs  129 

VI 

The  Mensural  Theory  of  Music  in  the  Thirteenth 

Century  142 

1.  The  Old  Tonalities  and  the  First  Steps  in 

Modern  Tonality  145 

2.  The  Measured  Rhythm  of  the  Thirteenth 

Century  151 

3.  The   Notation    of    the    Troubadours    and 

Trouveres  162 

Conclusion  166 

Bibliography  171 


TROUVERES  and  TROUBADOURS 

I 

THE  TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS  WERE 
MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS 

A  first  glance  at  the  title  of  this  book  may  provoke 
surprise,  for  a  series  devoted  to  masters  of  music  hardly 
suggests  to  the  unsuspecting  reader  a  volume  on  trou- 
veres  and  troubadours,  who  would  seem  to  be  more 
appropriately  assigned  to  a  survey  of  literature.  But 
the  paradox  is  mental  rather  than  actual,  based  on  the 
conception  of  medieval  lyrical  poetry  formed  by  modern 
historians  of  literature,  rather  than  on  tangible  and 
ascertainable  fact;  it  is  the  development  of  a  point  of 
view  generally  adopted  in  a  period  not  far  removed 
from  our  own. 

It  is  true  that  eighteenth-century  explorers  whose 
daring  prompted  them  to  study  the  lyrical  art  of  the 
middle  ages — e.  #.,  Levesque  de  la  Ravalliere  (Poesies 
du  Roi  de  Navarre,  174%)  and  De  La  Borde  (Essai  sur  la 
Musique  ancienne  et  moderne,  1780) — happily  realised 
that  the  trouveres  and  troubadours  were  musicians  as 

NOTE.  This  second  edition  has  enabled  me  to  correct  certain 
errors  and  modify  passages  which  appeared  to  undervalue  the 
achievements  of  my  colleague  M.  Jean  Beck. 


TROUBADOURS 

well  as  poets,  and  that  the  exposition  of  one  aspect  of 
their  creative  genius  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other  was  an 
imperfect  achievement;  hence,  both  of  these  authors,  in 
their  editions  of  the  trouveres  chosen,  Thibaut  of  Cham- 
pagne and  Navarre  and  the  Chatelain  (Castellan)  de 
Couci,  give  the  melodic  context  of  the  poems  quoted. 

This  example,  however,  was  not  followed.  Paulin 
Paris,  in  the  twenty-third  volume  of  the  Histoire  litte- 
raire  de  la  France,  devoted  a  justly  famous  chapter  to  the 
trouveres  chansonniers,  and  moreover  published  in  1833 
his  Romancero  franqois;  after  him,  Hecart,  Dinaux, 
Leroux  de  Lincy,  Keller,  Wackernagel  and  Tarbe  edited 
the  early  texts  of  our  medieval  lyrics;  but  all  confined 
themselves  to  the  literary  aspect,  and  gave  no  indication 
that  the  melodic  inspiration  attracted  their  serious  at- 
tention. Nor  are  indications  of  this  dual  interest  more 
pronounced  in  critical  editions  recently  published,  such 
as  Conon  de  Bethune  by  M.  Wallenskoeld,  Gace  BruU 
by  M.  Huet,  Blondel  de  Nesle  by  M.  Wiese,  nor,  in  fact, 
in  any  publication  of  the  same  kind.  Troubadours  have 
fared  no  better:  contemporary  editors  insist  on  treating 
them  as  poets  like  Malherbe,  Voltaire,  Lamartine  or 
Victor  Hugo. 

Undoubtedly  the  conception  of  medieval  lyric  poetry 
formed  by  nineteenth-century  editors  had  its  justification. 
While  De  La  Borde  and  Ravalliere  would  have  found 
'critical  edition*  a  meaningless  term,  and  while  Paulin 
Paris  and  his  erudite  contemporaries  begin  dimly  to 
realise  that  the  publication  of  a  text  may  demand  a 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  3 

certain  amount  of  discernment  and  system,  the  modern 
school  of  philologians  have  raised  textual  criticism  to 
an  extraordinary  level  of  precision  and  exactitude 
From  this  arises  a  twofold  consequence;  first,  that  an 
equally  accurate  study  of  both  the  melodic  and  the 
literary  work  of  the  trouveres  would  have  required — as 
our  editors  evidently  felt — a  combination  of  musical  and 
philological  culture  in  the  same  man,  and  hitherto  of 
rare  occurrence; — secondly,  a  difficulty  inherent  in  the 
melodic  texts  themselves,  arising  from  their  instability 
under  scientific  observation:  a  philologian  who  tried  to 
submit  a  melodic  specimen  of  the  trouvere  period  to  the 
critical  test  would  have  found,  with  me,  that  in  practice 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  express  these  compositions  in 
terms  definite  and  scientifically  exact.  This  twofold 
difficulty  has  undoubtedly  discouraged  modern  editors. 
Confronted  with  a  complex  work,  a  combination  of 
literature  and  music,  they  have  simply  ignored  or 
shirked  its  musical  side,  and  by  unconsciously  neglecting 
to  emphasise  the  fact  that  the  Ivripflljo^rns  nf  jJh<*  middle 
ages  were  intended  to  be  sung  ^jji^npt'^own  melodies, 
have  failed  to  make  it  understood  that  the  trouveres  and 
troubadours  were  musicians  and  poets.  This  incomplete 
conception  is,  I  venture  to  think,  unfortunate  and 
mischievous,  for  it  has  resulted  in  erroneous  views  con- 
cerning French  lyrical  poetry  of  the  middle  ages.  The 
object  of  this  book  is  to  correct  this  fault:  I  shall 
endeavour  to  establish  the  idea  that  the  troubadours 
and  trouveres  were  happily  inspired  melodists,  and  to 


4         TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

satisfy  the  reader  of  my  innocence  of  the  paradox  laid 
to  the  charge  of  the  editors  mentioned  above.  But, 
seeing  that  the  poetical  works  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres  have  received  constant  attention  and  are 
readily  accessible  in  excellent  editions,  I  shall  devote 
myself  to  their  musical  aspect.  A  just  but  modest 
revenge  taken  by  the  history  of  music  for  a  century  of 
oppression  carried  on  by  philologians  arid  historians  of 
literature  for  their  exclusive  benefit! 

What  is  the  right  method  to  adopt  in  a  comprehensive 
study  of  troubadours  and  trouveres?  These  are  the 
names  given  to  poets,  who,  from  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  to  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  wrote 
verses  intended  to  be  sung,  either  in  Provencal  or  in 
French,  and  in  most  cases  composed  the  melodies  to 
which  they  were  set. 

The  real  nature  of  these  songs  is  revealed  by  an 
amazingly  rich  treasure  of  manuscripts;  some  fifteen  of 
these,  by  troubadours  as  well  as  trouveres,  afford 
abundant  material  evidence:  these  witnesses  of  the 
thirteenth  and  early  fourteenth  centuries  give  the  first 
verse  of  each  song  under  the  melody  which  serves  for  all 
the  verses.  Other  contemporary  lyrical  forms,  such  as 
the  lais  (lays),  or  the  epitres  farcies,1  have  music  through- 
out. These  leave  no  room  for  doubt,  but  additional 

1  So-called  "pieces  farcies"  (literally,  "stuffed  pieces")  were  of 
quite  common  occurrence  in  the  middle  ages;  those  most  in  use  in 
French  literature  are  in  French  mingled  with  bad  Latin;  even  in  the 
churches,  hymnes  farcies  (epitres,  i.  e,,  epistles)  were  sung.  Kyries 
and  Credos  in  this  burlesque  style  are  still  extant.  But  such  poesie 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  5 

proofs  are  to  be  found  in  some  of  the  texts.     Conon  de 
Bethune  writes: 

Canchon  legiere  a  entendre 
Ferai,  car  bien  m'est  mestiers 
Ke  cascuns  le  puist  aprendre 
Et  c'on  le  cant  volontiers...1 

And  again: 

Bien  me  deiisse  targier 
De  canchon  faire  et  de  mos  et.de  cans2 

In  other  cases,  the  Biographies  des  Troubadours*  in 
Provengal  dialect  give  most  valuable  and  precise  in- 
formation on  this  combination  of  poet  and  musician  in 
the  same  creative  genius.  They  show  that  one  trouba- 
dour wrote  graceful  verse  but  mediocre  melodies,  while 
another  invented  felicitously  both  words  and  tune,  and  yet 
another  could  simultaneously  compose,  sing  and  accom- 
pany himself  on  the  viele.4  These  little  biographies, 
though  of  slight  critical  value,  abound  in  picturesque 

farcie    occurred    most    frequently    in    certain    grotesque    festivals; 
following  is  a  verse  sung  at  Evreux  at  the  Fete  des  Cornards: 
De  asino  bono  nostro, 
Melior  et  optimo, 
Debemus  faire  feste. 
Un  gros  chardon  reperit  in  via; 
77  lui  coupa  La  teste. 

EDITOR'S  NOTE. 

X'I  will  write  a  simple  song,  that  any  one  can  learn  and  enjoy 
singing,  for  it  is  my  profession.'  A.  Wallenskoeld,  p.  218. 

2 'I  should  have  to  postpone  the  writing  of  songs,  both  words  and 
music.'  Ibid.,  p.  228. 

sLes  Biographies  des  Troubadours  en  langue  provenqale,  published 
by  Camille  Chabaneau,  Toulouse,  1885  (from  Vol.  X  of  YHi.stoire 
generate  du  Languedoc). 

*Viele,  vielle,  or  viula.  The  "guitar-fiddle,"  the  forerunner  of 
the  viol. 


6         TROUVERfiS  AND  TROUBADOURS 

details  of  the  social  and  personal  conditions  under  which 
thirteenth-century  musicians  lived;  further  reference  will 
be  made  to  them. 

Elsewhere,  information  is  available  as  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  monodic  music  (the  songs)  of  the  trouba- 
dours and  trouveres  was  performed.  It  was  very  unusual 
for  the  trouvere  to  sing  his  own  compositions,  this  being 
the  province  of  the  jongleur  or  joglar.  The  latter  would 
move  from  castle  to  castle,  viele  on  back,  and  manuscript 
in  wallet  to  refresh  his  memory.  Should  the  noble  lords 
prove  obstinately  inhospitable,  the  jongleur  would  turn 
to  the  village  green  with  a  less  elaborate  repertoire.  In 
every  case,  whether  at  the  castle  or  in  the  street,  the 
performance  began  with  an  instrumental  ritournelle, 
establishing  the  rhythm  and  the  key,  followed  by  the 
jongleur's  singing  of  the  first  verse  to  his  own  accompani- 
ment of  sustained  notes,  perhaps  on  the  drones  of  his 
viele;  at  the  end  of  the  verse  the  ritournelle  was  repeated, 
then  followed  the  second  verse,  and  so  on. 

Facts  like  these,  in  their  simple  statement  and  natural 
interpretation,  convince  us  of  the  intimate  connection 
between  music  and  poetry  in  medieval  lyrical  com- 
positions. 

Were  words  and  music  always  the  offspring  of  the  same 
brain,  the  same  creative  inspiration?  Without  going 
so  far  as  to  make  this  assertion,  we  find  the  trouvere  to 
be  both  poet  and  musician  in  a  large  majority  of  examples. 
Not  being  blessed  with  the  composer's  mental  equipment 
I  cannot  venture  to  decide  whether,  despite  illustrious 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  7 

instances,  it  is  an  advantage  to  a  composer  to  write  his 
own  words.  In  modern  times  individuals  justify  the 
principle,  and  even  in  the  period  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres,  distinctions  appear.  Some  merely  write  the 
poem  for  the  professional  musician,  usually  a  jongleur, 
to  set  to  music;  sometimes,  too,  another  jongleur  takes 
a  trouvere's  song  already  set,  and  adapts  fresh  music  to 
it.  Hence,  certain  songs  in  vogue  in  the  thirteenth 
century  have  come  down  to  us  in  the  manuscripts  with 
two  or  three  different  melodies;  the  famous  song  of  thQ 
King  of  Navarre,  Dame,  einsi  est  quil  rrien  couvient  aler, 
is  known  in  three  settings;  we  must  admit  that  in  this 
instance  the  trouvere  poet  had  a  musical  collaborator. 

Other  authors  tell  us  that  their  songs  were  written 
after  the  model  of  some  earlier  composition.  "Thus 
Jacques  de  Cambrai  (James  of  Cambrai)1  wrote  a  song 
ou  son  (that  is,  to  the  music  and  consequently  in  the 
metre  of)  de  la  glaie  meure  (a  song  by  Raoul  de  Soissons 
beginning  Quant  voi  la  glaie  meure);  others  used  Ou 
chant  de  Tuit  mi  desir  (by  Thibaud  of  Champagne),  ou 
chant  de  Vunicorne  (Thibaud:  Ainsi  com  Vunicorne  sui) 
ou  chant  de  De  bone  amour  et  de  loial  amie  (by  Gace 
Brule)".2 


1  Modern  spelling  and  nomenclature  of  medieval  names  is  largely 
a  matter  of  choice,  James,  Hugh,  Arnold,  etc.,  appearing  under 
many  guises;  it  may  be  noted  that  William  of  Poitou  (p.  165)  is  also 
called,  by  various  writers,  Guilhem;  Guillem;  Guillaume;  William 
VII;  William  IX;  William  of  Guienne;  Count  of  Poitiers;  Duke  of 
Aquitaine;  WTilliam  of  Aquitaine. — TR. 

2Gaston  Paris,   La  liiterature  frangaise  au    moyen   age,   p.    181 
Paris,  1890,  8V0. 


8         TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Others,  finally,  write  words  and  music  together,  pro- 
ducing the  highest  and  most  perfect  form  of  lyrical 
composition,  already  foreshadowed  in  Greek  antiquity. 
At  the  opposite  pole  of  musical  history,  this  conception 
has  reappeared  in  our  own  times:  Richard  Wagner  and 
Vincent  d'Indy  wrote  their  own  librettos.  Has  a  word, 
then,  its  own  hidden  melody,  its  cantus  obscurior,  or 
does  the  musical  formula  respond  to  an  idea,  a  single 
idea,  of  which  the  composer  possesses  the  secret  and 
key?  This  unity  in  creation  is  an  article  of  faith  with  the 
contemporary  composer.  By  this  alone  is  it  possible  to 
realise  in  art  the  union  of  concomitant  facts  in  nature,  to 
reproduce  in  musical  declamation  the  true  accent  of 
speech  and  to  discover  in  speech  the  actual  word  de- 
manded by  the  music.  But  these  aesthetic  theories  were 
not  heeded  by  the  troubadours  and  trouveres;  this 
problem  of  artistic  truth  did  not  trouble  them  at  all. 
From  this  standpoint  their  musical  output  is  quite 
superficial;  Herold  or  Boieldieu  would  not  have  disowned 
it,  for  it  is  the  work  of  men  who  sing  for  singing's  sake. 

Since  the  medieval  lyrical  writers  did  not  strive  after 
a  more  intense  means  of  expression  in  this  union  of  two 
creative  faculties,  what  was  the  object  of  the  poet- 
musician's  conceptions '  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries? 

The  object  was  quite  material.  There  could  be  no 
question  of  musical  expression  in  melody  such  as  that  of 
the  troubadours  and  trouveres,  where  formality  reigned 
absolute:  but  the  melodic  phrase  was  the  reflection  of  the 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  9 

verses  to  which  it  was  linked,  their  counterpart,  a 
magnified,  sonorous  echo. 

We  shall  treat  later,  in  discussing  medieval  prosody,  of 
the  bondage  of  melody,  and  the  strict  rules  which  en- 
slaved it  to  verse.  In  the  middle  ages,  when  the  trou- 
badours and  trouveres  represent  musical  civilisations 
rhythmic  independence  does  not  exist.^  The  position  is 
this:  The  rhythmists  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  the  mensural  musicians,  had  retained,  in  the 
main,  three  types  of  ancient  metre,  the  iambus  (three 
beats,  a  short  followed  by  a  long,  ^ — ,);  the  trochee  (also 
three  beats,  a  long  followed  by  a  short, — ^);  and  the 
dactyl  (four  beats,  a  long  followed  by  two  shorts, — ^  ^). 
All  the  melodies  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  are 
based  on  these  three  formulae.  Now,  there  is  a  close 
connection  between  the  rhythm  of  the  lines  which  form 
a  verse  and  the  rhythmic  formula  of  the  accompanying 
music;  thus,  a  verse  of  decasyllabic  lines  almost  in- 
evitably calls  for  a  dactylic  rhythm.  The  trouvere  had 
no  .right  to  conceive  a  melody  in  another  rhythm. 
Examples  and  explanations  given  later,  will  elucidate 
this  view  of  medieval  rhythm,  quite  at  variance  with 
the  elasticity  of  modern  times. 

The  regulation  framework  of  the  melodic  phrase  tends 
to  a  still  closer  union  between  text  and  music;  in  fact, 
the  musician  must  be  no  less  adept  in  the  science  of 
versification  than  the  poet,  so  the  music  of  the  trouveres 
is  prosodised  music.  The  lyrical  work  of  the  middle 
ages  must  be  judged  as  a  combination  of  two  arts,  music 


10        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

and  poetry,  ceaselessly  reacting  upon  one  another. 
This  conception  is  certainly  lacking  in  loftiness.  Quite 
another  kind  of  grandeur  appears  in  the  Wagnerian 
scheme,  but  from  the  fact  that  the  fusion  of  poet  and 
musician  is  there  revealed  in  more  material  complete- 
ness, its  manifestation  is  more  precise;  the  poet-musician 
becomes  also  a  musician-poet.  We  do  not  grudge  the 
troubadours  and  trouveres  their  prominent  place  in  the 
history  of  Literature,  but  we  do  claim  for  them  a  position 
no  less  distinguished  and  legitimate  in  the  history  of 

Music. 

*      *      * 

Having  attempted  to  demonstrate  a  truth  commonly 
accounted  a  paradox,  and  having  established  the  musical 
character  of  the  works  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres, 
I  shall  endeavour  to  determine  the  relation  of  the  latter 
to  the  musical  history  of  their  period. 

The  general  public  is  quite  content  to  treat  things 
outside  its  range  as  negligible  quantities;  and  even 
moderns  who  can  wax  eloquent  on  questions  of  con- 
temporary music,  take  but  a  languid  interest  in  the 
initiatives  of  French  music.  This  is  an  unfortunate 
blunder.  We  can  interest  ourselves  in  the  masterpieces 
of  the  middle  ages,  in  the  combined  achievement  of 
architects,  sculptors  and  stained-glass  workers,  to  whose 
efforts  we  owe  our  magnificent  Gothic  cathedrals,  in 
romance  of  chivalry  and  adventure,  in  fables  and 
chronicles,  in  the  venerable  landmarks  of  our  national 
literature — but  not  in  the  musical  compositions  of  the 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  11 

same  period.  The  social  history  of  the  past  can  excite 
the  curiosity  of  the  modern  historian  no  less,  if  not  more, 
than  the  political;  we  can  enjoy  reconstructing  the 
intimate  life  of  the  thirteenth  century  by  delving  in 
contemporary  texts;  we  find  a  picturesque  attraction  in 
their  intrusions  into  the  family  life  of  seigneur  and 
bourgeois,  in  living  their  daily  lives  and  sharing  their 
amusements.  In  those  days,  as  in  ours,  singing,  whether 
spontaneous  or  artistic,  was  the  favourite  recreation. 
Let  us  hear  the  contemporaries  of  Philip  Augustus  or 
Saint  Louis  sing.  We  can  do  so;  if  we  do  not  hear  them 
speak  we  hear  them  sing.  We  do  not  know  precisely 
how  they  pronounced  their  words,  but  we  can  certainly 
reconstruct  their  melodies  with  an  accuracy  truly 
scientific,  and  the  result  is  not  negligible.  Moreover, 
these  researches  appeal  to  the  most  obstinate  imagination. 
The  history  of  that  music  becomes  also  the  history  of 
that  life. 

In  the  twelfth  century,  which  marks  the  appearance 
of  the  first  troubadours  and  the  first  .trouveres  whose 
compositions  have  been  preserved  for  us  in  the  MSS.,  two 
musical  styles  existed  side  by  side  in  France.  The  first, 
by  origin  and  intention  liturgical,  comprises  the  rich 
store  of  old  Gregorian  melodies,  unfolded  day  by  day 
throughout  the  revolving  year  in  monasteries  and  ca- 
thedrals. But  at  the  time  of  which  we  write,  the 
Gregorian  melody  is  not  yet  a  dead  language,  conserved 
by  custom  or  tradition.  New  Saints  enrolled  in  the 
calendar  of  this  or  that  church,  necessitate  new  services; 


12        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

so  we  find,  in  all  quarters  of  Christian  France,  the  adop- 
tion of  propres  (propriae;  that  is,  special  prayers  peculiar 
to  one  particular  diocese),  and  even  the  composition 
of  Alleluias,  responses  and  anthems  for  general  Church 
Festivals.  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
therefore,  liturgical  music,  far  from  having  exhausted  the 
vital  sources  of  its  inspiration,  both  preserves  its  heri- 
tage of  ancient  Gregorian  melodies  and  produces  new 
works  for  enhancing  the  splendour  of  its  services.  This 
form  of  art  illustrates  the  traditional  tendency;  the 
latter  conserves  from  the  past  a  faithful  conformance  to 
the  eight  ecclesiastical  modes,  and  that  elastic  rhythm 
known  during  the  centuries  of  its  formation  and  in  the 
time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  the  rhythm  of  the  liturgical 
chants;  Guido's  notation  and  its  neumes  being  hence- 
forward transplanted  to  the  four  lines  of  the  stave. 

But  side  by  side  with  this  liturgical  music,  this, 
art-manifestation  so  deeply  impressed  with  the  seal  of 
the  Church,  there  existed,  its  origin  difficult  to  define,  but 
probably  very  ancient,  a  mundane  product,  secular 
music.  A  few  scattered  relics  of  the  profane  music  of 
the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  have  come  down  to 
our  time,  consisting  of  ballads,  love-songs,  war-songs 
and  drinking-songs.  The  notation  is  in  neumes,  and  as 
we  have  no  stave  transcriptions,  their  precise  meaning  is 
impossible  to  define.  By  the  time  staff-notation  comes 
into  general  use  we  are  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  the  period  of  the  early  troubadours  and  trou- 
veres,  William  of  Aquitaine,  Blondel  de  Nesle,  and  Gautier 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  IS 

d'Epinal;  this  explains  our  meagre  knowledge  of  secular 
tunes  before  the  troubadour  period,  and  our  incomplete 
comprehension  of  those  which  have  survived.  Lyrical 
writers  are,  therefore,  the  direct  heirs  of  an  ancient 
line  of  nameless  poet-musicians  who  supplied  secular 
compositions  to  meet  a  secular  need,  the  Church  having 
its  own  musicians  and  poets  for  the  requirements  of  its 
ceremonies. 

Secular  composers  adopted  a  style  quite  different  from 
that  of  the  Church  composers.  The  free  rhythm  of  the 
latter  assumed  a  definite  shape  as  soon  melodies  had  to 
be  fitted  to  metrical  lines  (in  Latin  or  in  the  vernacular) 
instead  of  the  Latin  prose  of  the  Church.  The  doctrine 
of  the  eight  modes  still  continued,  but  in  secular  com- 
positions became  greatly  modified  by  the  innovations  of 
musica  ficta,  which  substituted  a  leading-note  (F  sharp 
or  C  sharp)  at  the  end  of  a  phrase  where  a  whole  tone 
would  have  been  used  by  the  ancient  system  of  modes. 
Finally,  after  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
'measured*  notation,  which  had  hitherto  retained  an 
outward  resemblance  to  ecclesiastical  notation,  asserted 
its  independence,  and  by  distinguishing  the  different 
values  of  notes  by  writing  them  as  longs,  breves  and 
semibreves,  lent  to  the  written  signs  for  ligatures  or 
groups  of  notes  a  rigorously  precise  significance;  all 
quite  foreign  to  liturgical  writing. 

"A  And  now  for  a  rapid  survey  of  the  various  styles  in 
'measured*  and  extra-liturgical  composition  between  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  and  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth 


14        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

centuries.  First  of  all,  note  the  troubadours  and  trou- 
veres,  melodic  writers  pure  and  simple;  since  the  present 
treatise  is  devoted  to  them,  they  are  mentioned  here 
merely  to  place  them  historically.  About  this  period 
harmonic  writers  began  to  adopt  conscious  and  definite 
forms  of  musical  composition;  just  as  in  our  time  a 
composition  master  instructs  a  pupil  in,  say,  the  tonality 
of  a  sonata,  so,  at  the  time  of  which  we  write,  inspiration 
was  not  allowed  to  roam  at  will:  music  as  an  art  and  a 
science  had  its  fixed  rules,  its  forms  of  style  and  composi- 
tion, the  three  principal  forms  being  the  organum,  the 
conductus,  and  the  motet. 

The  organum  is  peculiarly  a  part  of  musical  history: 
on  a  melodic  theme  from  the  liturgical  repertoire,  which 
serves  for  canto  fermo,  the  musician — or,  to  give  him  his 
proper  name,  the  dechanteur  (descanter) — writes  a  melodic 
development:  this  is  organum  duplum.  The  addition 
of  another  part  above  makes  organum  triplum,  and 
quadruplum  when  three  parts  are  superimposed.  Con- 
temporary writers  recognise  several  kinds  of  organum, 
but  all  adhere  to  the  invariable  principle  of  a  counter- 
point to  a  plain-song.  It  is  a  natural  supposition  that 
these  compositions  were  intended  for  use  in  worship  side 
by  side  with  the  true  liturgical  music:  but,  being  always 
tainted  with  secularity,  they  were  viewed  with  suspicion 
by  the  clergy  and  finally  fell  into  disuse. 

The  conductus  and  motet  belong  to  both  literary  and 
musical  history,  being  always  accompanied  by  a  poetical 
text,  in  Latin  or  in  the  vernacular. 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  15 

The  conductus  is  a  composition  for  one,  two,  three  or 
four  voices  on  a  poem,  with  similar  or  with  varying  verses, 
that  is  to  say,  the  music  may  either  repeat  or  change  with 
each  verse;  in  any  case,  the  music  must  be  the  actual 
original  work  of  the  composer,  owing  nothing  to  the 
ecclesiastical  repertoire. 

The  motet  is  a  composition  in  which,  as  in  the  organum, 
one,  two  or  three  independent  melodies  are  imposed  on 
a  given  theme,  called  the  tenor.  But,  while  the  organum 
had  no  text,  each  of  the  added  parts  in  the  motet  had 
words,  and  very  often  different  words  for  each  voice. 
We  even  find  one  voice  singing  in  Latin  and  another  in 
the  vulgar  tongue!  The  middle  ages  were  not  at  all 
dismayed  by  such  oddities.  We  may  add  that  it  is 
tolerably  certain  that  the  tenor  part  in  motets  was  played 
on  instruments,  viele,  giga  or  rebec. 

We  have  a  great  number  of  these  polyphonic  com- 
positions, preserved  in  collections  of  what  contempo- 
raries called  discantuum  volumina,  the  most  famous  being 
that  at  the  Laurentine  Library  in  Florence.1  It  has 
been  named,  after  its  most  illustrious  owner,  the  Anti- 
phonaire  de  Pierre  de  Medicis.  This  manuscript,  the 
most  important  relic  of  medieval  polyphonic  music, 
begins  with  a  collection  of  pieces  in  organum  style,  for 
two,  three  and  four  voices;  these  compositions  are 
arranged  in  the  order  of  the  liturgical  year,  a  sufficiently 
convincing  proof  that  they  were  destined  for  religious 
use.  Then  come  conductus  and  motets;  this  manuscript 

1  Florence,  Pluteus  XXIX,  1. 


16        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

contains  none  but  Latin  texts.     For  examples  in  the 
vulgar  tongue  one  must  consult  other  codices,  like  the 

.  Montpellier1  manuscript,  or  that  in  the  Bamberg 
Library.2  The  Florence  Antiphonarium  closes  with  a 
series  of  compositions  not  hitherto  mentioned,  namely 
rondelli  (rondels),  a  very  popular  from  of  writing  in 
medieval  times.  • 

These  musical  forms  are  characteristic  of  their  time, 
and  have  not  survived,  with  the  exception  of  the  motet; 
by  the  end  of  Saint  Louis'  (Louis  IX)  reign,  both  organum 
and  conductus  were  obsolete.  The  motet  fared  better, 
but  subsisted  only  by  means  of  transformation,  and 
after  the  closing  years  of  the  thirteenth  century  was 
modified  considerably,  entering  upon  a  new  phase  of 
its  history. 

Such  were  the  styles  contemporary  with  the  melodies 
of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres.  A  musical  work  is, 
therefore,  no  mere  chance  product  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  the  art  of  the  troubadours  and  the  trouveres 

%  is  certainly  not  a  negligible  or  unimportant  chapter  in 
the  history  of  French  music.  It  represents  a  century 
and  a  half  of  uninterrupted  fertility;  between  Blondel  de 
Nesle  and  Guillaume  de  Machaut  (or  Machau),  the 
immediate  follower  of  the  trouvere  age,  lies  a  chasm  of 
years  almost  as  wide  as  that  which  separates  Bach  from 

1  Montpellier,  University  Library,  H.  196. 

2  Bamberg,  Stiftsbibliothek,  Ed.  IV.  6.    Published  by  the  author 
under  the  title  of  Cent   Motets  du  xme  siede,  in  facsimile,  with  a 
transcription,  and  accompanied  by  a  critical  study,  in  the  publica- 
tions of  the  Societe  Internationale  de  Musique.  (Paris,  Geuthner,  1908.) 


MUSICIANS  AS  WELL  AS  POETS  17 

ourselves.  Nay,  further,  I  maintain  that  this  chapter 
of  history  is,  chronologically,  the  first  chapter  of  French 
music,  and  that,  though  certain  liturgical  composers  were 
born  on  the  soil  of  the  Capet  kingdom,  they  do  not 
show  such  a  marked  national  character  as  the  trouba- 
dours and  trouveres.  They  belong  to  the  church,  and  it 
is  for  the  Church  that  they  compose;  their  works  are 
appropriate  to  all  Christian  worship;  their  ideals  over- 
pass the  limits  of  their  own  province,  even  those  of 
France  itself,  and  are  found  wherever  man  believes  and 
worships.  The  troubadours  and  trouveres,  on  the  other 
hand,  depend  on  an  inspiration  that  is  essentially 
French,  unsophisticated  and  generous:  their  art  is  of 
the  aristocracy,  yet  closely  in  touch  with  the  people. 
In  short,  these  medieval  masters  of  melody  are  the 
direct  forerunners  of  our  modern  melodists,  Adam, 
Herold,  Auber  and  Ambroise  Thomas;  and  just  as  these 
latter  composers  charmed  our  parents  and  grandparents, 
so  did  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  minister  to  the 
amusement  of  those  of  our  ancestors  who  were  their 
contemporaries. 


II 

HOW  THE  MELODIES  OF  THE  TROUBADOURS 

AND  TROUVfiRES  HAVE  COME 

DOWN  TO  US 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  work 
in  manuscript  is  in  a  merely  provisional  state;  engraver 
or  printer  awaits  the  composition  of  a  musician  to 
diffuse  hundreds  and  thousands  of  copies  throughout  the 
artistic  world.  But  with  the  Troubadours  and  Trou- 
veres  the  case  was  different;  written  before  the  invention 
of  printing,  their  compositions  remained  in  manuscript 
form,  and  for  the  considerable  quantity  known  to  us 
to-day  we  are  indebted  to  the  patient  industry  of  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth-century  scribes.  Elaborate  manu- 
scripts for  the  desk  of  a  manorial  library,  or  very  modest 
ones  for  the  wandering  jongleur's  wallet,  all,  great  or 
small,  now  housed  in  libraries  or  museums,  have  pre- 
served for  us  the  inexhaustible  treasure  of  medieval 
melody.1 

But  this  lovely  garden  has  a  closed  door.  The  com- 
positions of  the  past  are  not  for  the  general  public,  nor 
even  for  the  musician,  of  to-day;  for  the  interpretation 
of  these  melodies,  so  simple,  so  light,  so  spontaneous, 

1  See  Bibliography. 


HOW  THE  MELODIES  HAVE  COME  DOWN  TO  US     19 

demands  a  combination  of  attainments  not  only  diverse 
but  sufficiently  specialised  to  discourage  the  primitive 
curiosity  which  gazes,  but  lingers  not.  The  task  is 
troublesome  enough  to  baffle  scholars  familiar  with 
medieval  musicology,  who  have  encountered  unsur- 
mountable  obstacles  in  their  research,  and  have  had  to 
discard  as  untenable  many  solutions  as  soon  as  estab- 
lished. Besides  a  knowledge  of  paleography,  Gothic 
script  and  abbreviations  in  the  texts,  one  must  be 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  old  French  of  the  North 
and  South,  that  is,  with  the  language  of  the  old  lyrical 
poets.  Besides  a  knowledge  of  the  technicalities  of 
medieval  as  well  as  of  modern  music,  one  must  be  well 
acquainted  with  the  ecclesiastical  modes,  to  bring  them 
into  line  with  musica  ficta,  where  necessary.  In  fact,  one 
must  master  the  principles  of  the  theorists  of  the  period 
and  be  quite  familiar  with  the  ars  mensurabilis;  and  this 
cannot  be  accomplished  in  a  day. 

We  shall  not  be  understood  without  an  illustration, 
in  facsimile,  of  a  page  from  these  manuscripts,1  taken 
from  a  French  manuscript  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale 
in  Paris  (847,  folio  5,  rect°).  This  is  a  small  manuscript 
made  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  original 
measuring  19  x  23  centimetres.  It  contains  the  melody 
and  first  verses  of  a  song  by  the  trouvere  Gace  Brule. 

Se]  j'ai  este  lone  tens  fors  du  pais 
Ou  je  lessai  la  riens  que  plus  amoie, 
De  maint  ennui  ai  puis  este  servis 
Et  eschapez  de  perilleuse  voie. 

1  Facing  page  20 


20  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

(I  have  been  a  long  time  out  of  the  country 
Where  I  left  the  thing  I  loved  best; 
Many's  the  trial  that  I  endured 
And  the  perilous  venture  that  I  escaped.) 

All  these  manuscript  song-books  have  common  char- 
acteristics. The  first  verse  only  has  notation,  the  others 
being  sung  to  the  same  tune.  The  stave  is  mostly 
of  four  lines  in  red  ink;  the  clef  (generally  the  C-clef, 
sometimes  the  F),  is  placed  at  the  head  of  each  stave 
on  any  line  required  by  the  exigencies  of  the  melody; 
it  should  be  stated  that  these  clefs  are  in  the  old  form, 
a  C  for  do,  an  F  for  fa.  The  notes,  as  can  be  seen  in  the 
facsimile,  are  always  square,  with  a  small  downward 
tail  on  the  right. 

Ligatures  are  combinations  of  notes  grouped  into  one 
figure,  being  sung  on  a  single  syllable.  In  the  time  of 
the  troubadours  and  trouveres  several  different  types  of 
ligature  are  found  for  the  same  kind  of  passage;  these 
differences  are  not  important,  but  it  is  advisable  to  note 
carefully  the  diversities  of  these  ligatures  after  the 
reforms  of  Franco  of  Cologne,  a  celebrated  master  of 
ars  mensurabilis,  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

A  flat  is  often-  added  to  the  note  B,  more  rarely  to  E. 
A  sharp  (formed  like  the  modern  natural)  is  used  with 
F,  and  sometimes  with  C. 

Rests  are  represented  by  vertical  lines  intersecting 
one,  two  or  three  lines  of  the  stave,  according  to  need. 

Such  is  the  notation  of  the  majority  of  these  manu- 
scripts. It  has  this  grave  defect,  that  the  method  of 
writing  gives  no  indication  of  rhythm,  all  the  notes 


T" 


ftmnt^i ^^isf  cftrfettuir 


HOW  THE  MELODIES  HAVE  COME  DOWN  TO  US     21 

being  similar,  even  the  ligatures  varying  in  significance; 
but  there  is  a  definite  rhythm,  though  it  requires  bringing 
to  light.  This  is  the  rock  that  wrecked  the  efforts  of 
explorers  before  the  time  of  Dr.  Hugo  Riemann;  our 
better  knowledge  of  to-day  has  removed  this  obstacle, 
and  we  can  push  forward  our  studies  undeterred  by  the 
prospect  of  fresh  hindrances. 

The  songs  are  usually  classified  by  authors,  the 
trouvere's  name  being  often  found  in  the  margin.  But 
there  are  exceptions,  as  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale 
MS.  846,  where  the  pieces  are  arranged  according  to 
the  first  word  of  the  first  verse,  more  or  less  alphabetically. 
There  is  no  other  classification  in  the  majority  of  cases, 
all  the  songs  being  jumbled  together  without  distinction 
of  style.  This  order  (classification  by  name)  and  this 
disorder  (confusion  of  styles)  reveal  the  circumstances 
under  which  these  collections  of  songs  were  formed.  They 
are  anthologies  compiled  by  thirteenth-century  copyists 
from  older  volumes  of  the  lyrical  works  of  individual 
trouveres;  such  is  the  explanation  of  this  lack  of  system 
in  the  song-books  which  have  come  down  to  us.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  poet  varied  the  subjects,  but  not  the 
form  of  his  compositions.  The  thirteenth  century,  apart 
from  the  rondel,  knew  nothing  of  pieces  in  set  form,  highly 
characteristic  of  the  following  century  and  the  works  of 
Guillem  de  Machaut  or  Philip  de  Vitry;  though  perhaps 
it  would  be  more  true  to  say  that  the  thirteenth  century 
knew  and  employed  a  musical  type  nearly  fixed  in  form — 
the  chanson.  But  though  its  structure  may  not  be 


22        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

absolutely  definite,  one  can  easily  trace  the  observance 
of  a  tendency  generally  adopted.  The  following  is  a 
type  of  trouvere  composition.1 

—A—  1   , 


J  '  J^L>  '  J  f  '  J  j  '  J  £ 


' 


_ 

con_  nou   -   ve     -  -    le,  Qu'e  -  le         me      fet        en  -   sei  - 

'          -B         ir 


g-nier    A          a  -  mer        la  __  plus        be    -  -    le      Qui         soit      el 

-  —  etc.  - 


fo   ,j    j  uj-    «M  f     r    i  p  r  J   i  ,J     J    i  j  j=p 


•fr—  _ 

mont    vi    -  vant,  C'est       la       bele        au cors     grent,  C'est       ce     -    le 


'     J    I  >>      J    I  J  J  J    I 


dont     je        chant,    Dex         m'en.^  doint        tel         nou     -    ve 


+— ,j     j  j  ^     r     r  r  f  f~ 
-& — ^ — ^ — •— ^ — • — '  rj 

le       Qui        soit       a          mon     ta  -    lent,  Car      me  -  nu         et sou> 

vent      Mes         cuers_    por          li  sau     -  te    -             .  -    le. 


(Love  makes  me  begin  a  new  song, 

Because  it  taught  me 

To  love  the  most  beautiful  lady 

In  the  whole  world; 

It  is  the  fair  one  of  beauteous  form, 

It  is  of  her  that  I  sing; 

God  give  me  such  news  of  her 

As  I  desire, 

For  quickly  and  often 

My  heart  leaps  at  the  thought  of  her.) 

1This  is  a   song    by    the    King    of    Navarre,    preserved  in  the 
Bibliotheque  de  1'Arsenal  (Chansonnier  manuscript  5198,  folio  12). 


HOW  THE  MELODIES  HAVE  COME  DOWN  TO  US     23 

Here  is  seen  a  melodic  phrase  made  up  of  two  sub- 
phrases  (distinctions)  A  +  B.  This  melodic  phrase  is 
repeated  (A'  +  B')>  then  carried  on  by  a  variable  number 
of  free  melodic  phrases  (V),  constituting  the  musical 
development  of  the  initial  theme.  Thus  the  common  type 
of  troubadour  or  trouvere  song  resolves  itself  into  this 
formula : 

A  B        A'  B'        x 

But  this  formula  is  capable  of  infinite  variants;  the 
first  part  of  the  verse  can  be  so  modified  as  to  give  the 
initial  melodic  phrase  three,  or  four,  sub-phrases.  Thus 
we  get: 

ABC  A'B'C'         x 

ABCD  A'B'C'D'    x 

Or,  again,  a  sub-phrase  can  be  repeated  within  the 
musical  phrase  itself,  forming  this  type: 

AAB  A'A'B'         x 

We  need  not  further  discuss  these  details,  for  the 
variations  are  almost  endless,  especially  if  we  include 
their  possible  combinations  with  x  in  the  free  develop- 
ment-section. It  is  here  that  the  author  displays  his 
ingenuity.  Except  when  resetting  an  existing  work,  a 
trouvere  was  not  allowed  to  adopt  a  formula  already 
used  by  him  or  others.  This  of  course  complicated  the 
poet's  task  to  a  curious  and  quite  needless  extent,  but 
the  medieval  mind  delighted  in  such  childish  difficulties. 
And  after  all,  a  very  slight  modification  sufficed  to  secure 


24  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

the  necessary  differentiation,  as,  for  example,  the  em- 
ployment of  novel  rhymes :  individuality  could  be  claimed 
at  this  small  cost. 

But  the  true  individuality,  the  quality  we  treasure, 
was  something  quite  different.  It  was,  and  still  is,  in 
the  inspiration  which  prompted  the  poet  to  write.  The 
troubadours  and  trouveres  sang  principally  of  courtly 
love,  a  sentiment  so  abstract  as  to  be  barely  intelligible 
to  the  vulgar;  but  happily  their  choice  of  subject  is 
wider;  religious  feeling,  the  fanaticism  of  the  crusades, 
the  delights  of  spring,  all  these  are  echoed  or  reflected 
in  their  poems. 

At  one  time,  it  is  the  trouvere  speaking  for  himself, 
or  discussing  and  arguing  with  disputant  or  objector, 
and  we  have  a  tenson  (argument  or  contest)  or  a  jeu- 
parti  (dialogue);  or  he  is  a  friend  keeping  watch  over 
two  lovers,  and  we  have  a  chanson  d'aube  (Alba,  or 
dawn-song) ;  or  there  is  the  lament,  sung  by  a  woman  at 
her  daily  occupation,  chiefly  spinning,  hence  called  a 
chanson  de  toile  (spinning-song) ;  or  it  is  a  shepherd  who  is 
the  principal  figure,  in  which  case  the  song  is  called  a 
pastourelle  (pastoral);  nor  are  these  all,  for  besides 
religious  songs  and  dancing-songs,  songs  showing  subtle 
transitions  from  the  former  to  the  latter  are  numerous. 

This  brings  us  to  the  very  heart  of  the  subject;  before 
discussing  the  troubadour  and  trouvere  as  men,  let  us 
study  them  as  they  reveal  themselves  in  their  works. 

A  rough  classification  will  not  be  out  of  place  here; 
this  has  already  been  made  by  several  writers,  but  in  a 


HOW  THE  MELODIES  HAVE  COME  DOWN  TO  US     25 

book  where  the  results  of  scholarly  research  must  be 
touched  upon  very  lightly,  we  may  content  ourselves 
with  a  few  simple  statements  and  pass  quickly  over  purely 
literary  considerations  in  order  to  examine  at  leisure 
facts  bearing  on  the  history  of  music. 

As  to  the  origin  of  the  French  lyrical  poetry  of  the 
middle  ages  the  reader  is  referred  to  Gaston  Paris' 
famous  treatise;1  it  is  to  the  old  popular  songs  inspired  by 
May-day  revels,  the  Calends  of  May,  the  maieroles,  the 
calendas  maias  of  the  troubadours,  that  we  must  turn 
for  the  source  of  all  lyrical  styles,  spinning-songs, 
dancing-songs,  spring  songs,  pastorals,  and  also,  to  a 
certain  extent,  courtly  poesy.  We  can  easily  trace  in  all 
these  compositions  the  reflection  or  echo  of  the  early 
inspiration  of  primitive  times.  Gaston  Paris  has  very 
skilfully  arrayed  his  evidence  in  support  of  his  hypothe- 
sis; let  us  accept  his  conclusion — for  it  is  simple,  and 
shows  what  dainty  little  products  were  the  songs  of  the 
troubadours  and  trouveres — without  attempting  to 
disparage  the  delicate  fancy  of  the  authors,  or  rub  the 
bloom  off  these  flowers  of  their  creation.  Some  scholars, 
especially  foreign  enthusiasts,  crush  the  frail  life  out 
of  our  ancient  poetry  with  the  weight  of  their  ponderous 
learning  on  the  plea  of  preserving  it,  just  as  men  will 
bury  an  ancient  fresco  with  a  thick  coating  of  paint  to 
stay  the  ravages  of  exposure;  but  Gaston  Paris  was  not 
one  of  these. 

1G.  Paris,  Les  Origines  de  la  poesie  lyrique  au  moyen  age. — 
Paris,  1892.  (From  the  Journal  des  Savants,  November  and  Decem- 
ber, 1891,  March  and  July,  1892.) 


26        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

And  now  to  classify  the  songs — as  thankless  a  task 
as  the  classification  of  butterflies!  A  few  learned  terms 
will  tell  all  we  know  and  save  further  discussion.  There 
are,  we  are  told,  the  objejctive  style,  where  the  heroes  of 
song  occupy  the  principal  place,  and  the  subjective, 
where  the  poet  speaks  for  himself.  This  is  true  enough, 
but  it  is  equally  correct,  and  less  abstract,  to  say  that  all 
objective  songs  are  in  essence  personal  songs,  and  that 
the  subjective  kinds  are  simply  an  infinitely  varied 
development  of  the  principles  of  courtly  love,  that 
psychology  peculiar  to  men  of  gentle  breeding  in  the 
middle  ages;  the  subjective  styles  find  complete  ex- 
pression in  la  poesie  courtoise  (courtly  poesy). 

Yet  some  historians  have  formulated  a  geographical 
standard  for  the  classification  of  lyrical  styles;  they 
speak  of  lyrical  poetry  purely  French  and  lyrical  poetry 
of  Provengal  origin.  In  the  former  category  Gaston 
Paris  places  historical  ballads,  rondels,  estampies  (see 
page  40)  and  pastorals;  on  the  other  hand,  Provengal 
inspiration  pervades  all  courtly  poesy.  Whatever  theory 
we  favour,  and  whatever  be  our  point  of  view  when 
entering  on  the  study  of  medieval  poetry,  we  find  that 
all  these  compositions  divide  into  two  main  groups 
capable  of  subdivision,  and  may  take  the  following  table 
as  our  starting-point  in  this  study  of  the  work  of  trou- 
badours and  trouveres. 

A.     La  Chanson  a  Personnages.     (Character  song.) 

1.  Chansons  d'histoire  (ballads). 

2.  Chansons  dramatiques  (dramatic  songs). 


HOW  THE  MELODIES  HAVE  COME  DOWN  TO  US     27 

3.  Chansons  de  danse  (dance-songs). 

4.  Reverdies  (Spring  songs). 

5.  Pastourelles  (pastorals). 

6.  Chansons    d'aube  (Albas.     Dawn-songs,  sere- 

nades). 

B.  La  Poesie  courtoise.  (Courtly  Poesy.) 

1.  Chansons  courtoises   (courtly   songs,   songs  of 

homage) . 

2.  Jeux-partis  (dialogues). 

With  Chansons  courtoises  may  be  included: 

C.  Religious  Songs. 

Though  the  link  is  very  slender,  the  inspiration  is 
the  same,  and  the  same  vocabulary  serves  for  the  poetic 
expression  of  the  most  worldly  and  the  most  sacred  love. 


Ill 

THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY 

A.     LA  CHANSON  A  PERSONNAGES 

1.       LES    CHANSONS  D*HISTOIRE   (Ballads) 

These  are  fragments  of  narrative  or  epic  poetry,  put 
into  lyrical  form  in  the  twelfth  century.  The  middle 
ages  called  these  songs  chansons  (Thistoire  (ballads,  or 
songs  with  a  tale  or  legend)  because  of  this  narrative 
element,  just  as  the  chansons  de  toile  (spinning-songs) 
were  so  named  from  the  principal  character,  generally 
a  woman  at  her  work,  or  from  being  sung  by  women  at 
the  spinning-wheel.  In  any  case,  the  chansons  d'histoire 
are  undoubtedly  the  earliest  specimens  of  lyrical  work 
preserved  in  the  song-books;  they  date  back  to  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century.  They  are  all  written  in 
the  langue  d'o'il  (the  language  of  Northern  France)  and 
anonymous :  the  metre  is  still  that  of  the  chanson  de  geste 
(ballad  of  romance  and  chivalry)  rather  than  of  true 
lyrical  verse;  and  rhyme  has  not  yet  displaced  the 
primitive  assonance.  The  subject  is  an  anecdote,  or  a 
miniature  love-drama  served  up  in  medieval  fashion; 
the  intense  effect  results  from  simplicity  of  means  rather 
than  from  conscious  and  subtle  skill.  LTnfortunately, 


THE  VARIOUS   CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       29 


compared  with  the  number  that  must  have  been  written, 
very  few  are  extant.  These  have  been  published  by 
Bartsch,  and  one  is  given  here  as  edited  by  him;1  needless 
to  say,  the  learned  scholar  neglected  the  musical  element 
in  the  pieces  he  edited;  the  melodies,  therefore,  now  re- 
appear for  the  first  time,  after  seven  centuries  of  oblivion.2 

Anime 


5fe 


Bele 


Y  -  o 


-    lanz 


cham   -  fares    se     - 


oit, 


D'un      boen    sa       -       miz        u  -  ne          ro    -     be    co     - 
3 


mi         ,tra  -  met1  - 


r  r  r  ^  fe*=> 


tre  la        vo 


-    loit. 


En. 


sos  -  pi 


J    J      I 


t —         ces  -  te  chan    -    £on       chan 


toit: 


"Dex! 


tant     est douz      li       nons    d'a 

3 


mors,. 


^- 


cui    - 


dai     sen    -    tir      do 


xKarl  Bartsch,  Altfranzosische  Romanzen  und  Pastonrellcn. 
Leipzig,  1870. 

2 The  ballad  of  Belle  Yolanz  is  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale 
(ms.  franc,.  20050,  fol.  64.)  The  manuscript  has  been  published 
in  facsimile  by  the  Societe  des  Anciens  textes  franc.ais  (1892).  The 
literary  text  has  been  edited  by  K.  Bartsch,  Romanzen,  p.  10.  See, 
also,  Georg  Schlager's  Uber  Musik  und  Strophenbau  der  franzosischen 
Romanzen,  p.  4.  Halle,  1900:  8V0. 

(See,  however,  Julien  Tiersot,  Histoire  de  la  Chanson  Populaire 
en  France  (Paris,  Heugel,  1889),  page  414,  where  it  is  noted  in 
duple  time.  TRANSLATOR.) 


30  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

II 

"Bels  douz  amis,  or  vos  voil  envoier 
Une  robe  par  mout  grant  amistie. 
Por  Deu  vos  pri,  de  moi  aiez  pitie  !" 
Ne  pot  ester,  a  la  terre  s'assiet. 
Dex,  tant  est  douz  li  nons  d'amors 
Ja  n'en  cuidai  sentir  dolors. 

Ill 

A  ces  paroles  et  a  ceste  raison 
Li  siens  amis  entra  en  la  maison. 
Cele  lo  vit,  si  bassa  lo  menton, 
Ne  pot  parler,  ne  li  dist  o  ne  non. 
Dex,  tant  est  douz  li  nons  d'amors 
Ja  n'en  cuidai  sentir  dolors. 


IV 

Li  siens  amis  entre  ses  braz  la  prent, 
En  un  biau  lit  s'asient  seulement  : 
Bele  Yolanz  lo  baise  estroitement, 
A  tor  frangois  en  mi  lo  lit  1'estent. 

Dex,  tant  est  douz  li  nons  d'amors  : 

Ja  n'en  cuidai  sentir  dolors. 

BELLE  YOLANZ 
I 

Fair  Yolanz  sat  in  her  chamber; 

Weaving  a  robe  of  fine  silk; 

She  wished  to  send  it  to  her  lover. 

Sighing  she  sang  this  song: 

"God!  so  sweet  is  the  name  of  love, 
I  never  thought  to  feel  its  pains. 

II 

"Dear,  sweet  friend,  I  fain  would  send  you 
A  robe,  out  of  very  great  friendship; 
By  heaven  I  pray  you,  have  pity  upon  me!' 
She  could  not  stand,  she  sank  to  the  ground. 
God!  so  sweet,  etc. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       31 

III 

At  these  words,  and  at  this  speech, 
Her  true  love  entered  the  house; 
She  saw  him,  her  head  (lit.  chin)  drooped, 
She  could  not  speak,  nor  said  him  yea  nor  nay. 
God!  so  sweet,  etc. 

IV 

Her  true  love  took  her  in  his  arms, 
They  sat  alone  upon  a  fair  couch, 
Fair  Yolanz  kissed  him  passionately; 


God!  so  sweet,  etc. 

The  principal  character  is  these  songs  is  invariably  a 
woman.  M.  Jeanroy,  in  a  well-known  book1  which  we 
shall  have  to  quote  frequently,  says,  "In  some  of  the 
later  songs,  the  ill-mated  wife  has  already  made  her 
appearance.  In  the  chivalrous  setting  affected  by  this 
kind  of  poetry,  we  are  introduced  to  daughters  of  kings 
and  emperors,  married  to  villeins  or  at  least  to  husbands 
beneath  their  own  rank.  But,  most  frequently,  the 
heroines  are  girls  placed  in  precisely  the  situations 
previously  discussed: — generally  cherishing  a  passion 
thwarted  by  their  relatives,  or  occasionally  pining  for 
a  distant  lover.  Sometimes  the  lover  does  not  return, 
and  the  maid  seeks  the  seclusion  of  a  convent;  in  many 
of  the  songs  the  deserted  mistress  bears  a  child  to  the 
runaway,  though  occasionally  the  lover  comes  back 
and  hero  and  heroine  renew  their  early  passion : 
"Lors  recommencent  lors  premieres  amores." 

The  women  are  all  beautiful  ("Fair  Erembors,"  "Fair 
Aiglantine,"  "Fair  Doette,"  "Fair  Yzabel,"  "Fair  Yo- 

XA.  Jeanroy,  Les  origines  de  la  poesie  lyrique  en  France  en  moyen 
age,  p.  218.    Paris,  1889:  8V0. 


32        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

lanz,"  "Fair  Amelot,")  and  all  unhappy.  Their  husbands 
are  either  monsters  or  clowns,  whose  one  method  of 
ensuring  a  wife's  devotion  is  corporal  punishment; 
equally  undeserving  of  sympathy  are  the  mothers, 
spoken  of  as  "la  male  mere"  (the  cruel  mother);  even 
the  lovers  are  strangely  contemptuous  and  well  cal- 
culated to  repel  the  fiery  passions  of  their  mistresses. 
These  types  serve  as  a  foil  to  the  sweet  and  charming 
heroine:  she  is  'made  to  please,'  thus  enabling  all  woman- 
kind to  flatter  themselves  at  their  resemblance,  greater 
or  less,  to  Doette,  Aiglantine,  or  Yolanz.  We  may,.±here- 
fore,  accept  the  view  of  certain  authors,  that  these 
ballads  were  intended  to  be  sung  by  women  in  their 
chambers,  during  the  long  hours  of  leisure  which  their 
feudal  state  imposed  on  them; — by  the  chatelaine  or  by 
the  ladies  of  the  household  while  the  men  were  away 
hunting  or  crusading,  or  by  women  and  girls  working 
together  at  tapestry  or  some  other  feminine  occupation. 
One  would  sing  the  verse,  and  the  remainder  would 
take  up  the  refrain,  thus  relieving  the  tedium  of  time 
and  labour.  The  chansons  d'histoire  are  women's  songs, 
blossoms  that  deck  the  feminine  sanctum. 

2.     LES  CHANSONS  DRAMATiQUES.     (Dramatic 
Ballads.) 

This  appellation  (M.  Jeanroy's)  is  correct  in  the  sense 
that  the  chansons  dramatiques  introduce  three  characters, 
the  husband,  the  wife  and  the  lover,  the  wife  being  the 
most  prominent,  though  not  necessarily  the  most  ex- 


-THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       33 

emplary  personage.  These  little  pieces  form  no  school 
of  morality;  they  are  so  ingenuous,  and  reveal  such  a 
total  disregard  of  social  prejudices,  that  our  inability 
to  trace  the  authorship  in  many  cases  has  enabled  some 
misogynist  critics  to  suggest  that  the  authors  were 
really  women.  The  central  idea  is  the  ill-mated  wife;  an 
immortal  theme,  infinitely  varied  in  folk-lore  of  all 
ages  and  countries.  But,  as  has  been  shrewdly  re- 
marked,1 while  popular  songs  on  ill-assorted  marriages 
are  invariably  satirical,  ridiculing  husband,  wife  and  all 
concerned  alike,  the  medieval  composition  is  avowedly 
cynical  and  immoral,  and  the  husband  is  made  a  laugh- 
ing-stock simply  because  he  is  the  husband.  We  can 
appreciate  the  candour  of  the  bride  who  shamelessly 

cries : 

Honis  soit  maris  ki  dure  plus  d'un  mois!2 

At  first,  the  ill-mated  wife  relates  her  troubles  in 
secret,  behind  her  husband's  back,  when  she  is  with 
other  women,  or  with  her  lover,  perhaps.  But  this  can 
last  only  for  a  time;  sooner  or  later,  the  crash  comes. 

One  fine  day,  the  presence  of  the  "villain"  (the  hus- 
band) brings  her  resentment  to  a  crisis,  and,  throwing 
all  prudence  to  the  winds,  the  ill-mated  wife  blurts  out 
the  truth  in  her  husband's  face.  Poor  man!  Will  he 
ever  hear  himself  so  abused  or  accused  again?  He  is 
prematurely  old,  stingy  to  avarice,  and,  worst  of  all,  a 

iJeanroy,  Origines,  p.  89. 

2  "A  plague  on  the  husband  who  lasts  longer  than  a  month!" 
Bartsch,  II,  27. 


34  TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

victim  to  jealousy,  a  fault  quite  unpardonable  in  the 
middle  ages.  The  moral  code  of  these  poems  enables 
a  woman  to  forgive  her  husband  everything — no  great 
sacrifice,  seeing  that  the  lover  has  appeared — except 
jealousy,  a  most  disturbing  impediment  to  her  extra- 
conjugal  happiness. 

Bartsch  has  published  a  considerable  number  of  these 
ballads  on  ill-assorted  marriages.1 

The  accompanying  melodies  only  serve  to  heighten 
their  attractiveness;  I  quote  a  characteristic  example. 
The  words  and  music  have  come  down  to  us  in  two 
distinct  manuscripts;  in  a  work  published  some  years 
ago2  a  collation  of  the  two  manuscripts  enabled  me  to 
reconstitute  the  song  in  its  entirety. 

A    Modere 


8>  *  J  j-    '  J   ' 

For    coi             me    bait 

mes    ma 

ris? 

Lais  -" 

set"~~^ 

-    te!  Je      ne  li         ai         rienz  mes     -     fait  Ne   riens 


j    I  J   *   f    I  J   J    1  g 


dit  Fors     c'a      -      col  -  ler 


m 


min,  Sou  -  let     -  .    te.  For  coi- 


me    bait  mes     ma      -          -     ris?  Lai    -    sijt      -  -     te! 

1  Bartsch,  Romanzen,  I,  21,  23,  25,  36,  38,  46,  48,  69,  etc. 

2  P.  Aubry,  Recherches  sur  les  tenors  frangais  dans  Us  motets 
treizieme  siecle.    Paris,  1907:  8VO,  pp.  35  et  seq. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       35 

II 

Et  c'il  ne  mi  lait  durier 

Ne  bone  vie  meneir, 

Je  lou  ferai  cous  clamier, 

A  certes. 
For  coi  me  bait  mes  maris? 

Laisette  ! 

Ill 

Or  sai  bien  que  je  ferai 
Et  coment  m'an  vangerai  : 
Avec  mon  amin  geirai, 

Nuette. 
Por  coi  me  bait  mes  maris? 

Laisette! 

I 

(Why  does  my  husband  beat  me? 

Unhappy  one! 
I  have  done  him  no  harm, 
Nor  spoken  any  ill  of  him, 
Except  to  embrace  my  lover 

In  secret. 
Why  does  my  husband  beat  me? 

Unhappy  one! 

II 

If  he  does  not  let  me  rest 

And  lead  a  happy  life, 

I  shall  make  a  complaint  of  him, 

For  certain. 
Why  does  my  husband  beat  me? 

Unhappy  one! 

Ill 

Now  I  know  what  to  do 
And  how  to  avenge  myself; 
I  shall  find  consolation 

With  my  lover. 
Why  does  my  husband  beat  me? 

Unhappy  one!) 

Another  favourite  character  in  medieval  poetry  is  the 
young  nun  weary  of  religious   seclusion  and  eager  to 


36        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

escape  from  the  convent.  Ribaldry  delights  in  such  a 
topic,  and  the  songs  of  this  kind  are  generally  rounded 
off  with  the  familiar  burden: 

Je  sent  les  douls  mals  leis  ma  senturete  : 
Malois  soit  de  Dieu  ki  me  fist  nonnete!1 

(My  girdle  hides  an  aching  heart;2 
A  plague  on  God  who  made  me  nun!) 

The  nun  yearning  for  freedom  is  a  variant  of  the  ill- 
mated  wife,  the  taking  of  the  veil  being  likened  to 
marriage  and  the  church  to  the  husband. 

One  feels  that  here  is  an  abuse  of  the  libertas  maia 
("spring  license")  so  dear  to  Gaston  Paris  and,  according 
to  him,  the  privileged  companion  of  the  glorious  spring- 
time. But  it  is  a  natural  product,  and  the  charm  of  these 
songs  is  but  a  reflection  of  the  turbulent  and  licentious 
abandon  of  springtime  festivals.  The  prim  gentility  of 
modern  critics  may  pause  disarmed,  consoled  by  the 
fact  that  even  contemporaries  did  not  take  the  heroines 
of  these  miniature  dramas  very  seriously. 

3.     LES  CHANSONS  DE  DANSE.      (D anting -Songs.) 

A  short  time  since,  within  the  last  two  or  three  years, 
our  historical  knowledge  of  dancing  in  the  middle  ages 
was  almost  nil;  apparently,  the  high-priests  of  scholarship 
and  research  could  not  lower  themselves  to  the  study 
of  dances,  dancing-girls,  and  their  art.  To-day  our 
information  is  less  meagre.  Philologians  have  classified 

^artsch,  Romanzen,  I,  33.    See  also  I,  34. 

2 Lit.    I  feel  the  sweet  pains  (of  love)  beneath  my  girdle. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       37 

some  fragments  of  texts,  illuminating  a  corner  of  twelfth 
and  thirteenth-century  literature  which  has  hitherto  lain 
in  obscurity.  Others  have  offered  hypotheses,  no  less 
ingenious  than  welcome,  explaining  many  songs  otherwise 
unintelligible  by  reconstructing  them  as  mime  plays  for 
several  characters.  I  myself  have  collected  and  pub- 
lished the  earliest  examples  of  instrumental  music  in 
the  middle  ages,  written  for  the  instrument  known  as 
the  viele  or  vielle  in  the  thirteenth  century;  these  prove 
to  be  dancing-tunes  as  well,  called,  in  the  manuscript 
which  has  preserved  them,  estampies  and  danses  royales.1 
Still,  this  is  but  slight  material  for  the  reconstruction 
of  an  art  of  which  we  know  nothing  else!  The  medieval 
dance  probably  possessed  none  of  the  infinitely  expressive 
grace  or  studied  pose  of  the  ancient  dance,  nor  does  it 
appear  to  have  approached  the  style  or  technical  per- 
fection of  the  modern  dance.  In  point  of  fact,  I  fancy 
it  was  rather  uncouth  and  clumsy,  but  it  is  certain  that 
in  the  time  of  the  trouveres,  as  in  that  of  the  great 
lyric  poets  of  Greece,  dancing  was  associated  with  two 
other  forms  of  the  active  arts,  music  and  poetry.  We 
can  well  imagine  how  some  of  these  songs,  cold  and 
lifeless  to-day  in  their  shroud  of  manuscript,  were  sung 
by  the  contemporaries  of  Saint  Louis  while  enacting 
little  dancing  scenes,  rondels,  caroles,  and  baleries.  Nor 
does  the  dance  appear  to  have  been  the  monopoly  of  the 
professional  merry-andrew,  the  aristocratic  pastime  of 

Published  by  the  author  under  this  title,  Estampies  et  danses 
royales  (Paris,  Fischbacher,  1906),  transcribed  in  modern  notation, 
with  the  original  text  in  facsimile. 


38         TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

the  grand  seigneur,  or  the  delight  of  the  privileged  few; 
on  the  contrary,  the  taste  for  dancing  was  generally 
diffused  and  deeply  rooted  among  all  classes.  A  conclusion 
so  obvious  needs  no  emphasis,  save  to  recall  the  growls 
of  pious  moralists  and  the  strange  metaphor  of  a  thir- 
teenth-century preacher,  Jacques  de  Vitry,  who  tells 
us  that  a  woman  who  leads  the  dance  is  the  devil's 
bell-wether  and  guides  the  satanic  shepherd  to  her 
companions ! 

These  chansons  de  danse  compel  us  once  more  to  accept 
the  theory  of  Gaston  Paris,  since  they  give  the  clearest 
possible  corroboration  of  his  conclusions.  He  writes, 
"On  the  first  day  of  spring,  and  particularly  on  May-day, 
not  only  was  there  a  May-quest  in  the  woods,  where 
the  revellers  dressed  themselves  in  foliage  and  loaded 
themselves  with  flowers  for  the  adornment  of  the  lintels, 
but  young  girls  and  young  w^omen  tripped  their  rounds 
on  the  sprouting  grass  as  if  (so  to  say)  performing  ritual 
rites."1 

These  May-day  dances  beneath  the  blossoming  trees 
seem  to  me  a  primitive  stage  of  development.  There 
were,  of  course,  more  complicated  forms;  I  can  fancy  a 
second  stage,  where  festival  gatherings  are  held  on  the 
village  green.  The  final  type  in  this  evolution  would 
be  aristocratic  dances  in  the  manorial  castle;  at  the  con- 
clusion of  this  summary  we  shall  venture  to  attend  one 
of  these  gatherings  as  uninvited  guests. 

1  Gaston  Paris,  Origines,  p.  49. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       39 

The  medievals  danced  to  the  sound  of  instruments, 
and  also  to  songs.  Internal  evidence,  afforded  by  the 
compositions  themselves,  enables  us  to  draw  distinctions 
and  analyse  instrumental  and  vocal  dances  respectively. 

a.     Dancing  was  Accompanied  by  Instruments. 

Before  the  publication  of  Estampies  et  danses  royales,1 
the  value  of  such  a  statement  would  have  possessed 
a  purely  artistic  or  literary,  and  from  a  scientific  or 
critical  point  of  view,  a  wholly  problematical  interest. 
But  these  precious  and  picturesque  documents  are  most 
interesting  and  instructive;  they  are  the  earliest  examples 
known  of  instrumental  music,  properly  so  called,  in  the 
(middle  ages,  and  are,  moreover,  designed  expressly  for 
dancing.  Written  as  instrumental  music,  the  estampies 
were  meant  to  be  played  by  jongleurs  on  the  viele;  and 
we  know  that  the  medieval  viele  is  one  of  the  instruments 
whose  line,  during  the  course  of  centuries,  was  continued 
in  the  family  of  the  viols  in  the  Renaissance  period,  and 
thereafter  by  the  modern  violin.  Both  the  number  and 
tuning  of  the  strings  varied  in  this  instrument,  rendered 
fairly  familiar  to  us  through  its  representation  on 
miniatures  and  monuments,  and  by  the  numerous  edi- ' 
tions  of  the  works  of  an  early  fourteenth-century  theorist, 
Jerome  of  Moravia.  The  historian  of  music  cannot  fail 
to  observe  that  the  composition  of  these  dance-tunes 
was  dominated  by  the  observance  of  a  fixed  form.  An 
instrumental  estampie  was  made  up  of  a  certain  number 

1See  above,  page  37. 


40        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

of  musical  phrases  called  puncta  (plural  of  punctum) ,  each 
twice  repeated,  the  endings  (and  this  applied  to  all  the 
puncta  of  any  particular  piece)  being  named  ouvert  for  the 
first  repeat,  and  clos  for  the  second.  A  course  of  musical 
composition  in  a  thirteenth-century  university  or  school 
of  minstrelsy,  had  such  existed,  would  most  certainly 
have  included  the  study  of  the  estampie.1 

Being  written  for  dancing,  these  estampies  were 
actually  danced,  and  the  etymology  of  the  word  will 
convince  the  skeptical  that  this  was  so.  The  old  Proven- 
gal  form,  estampida,  is  the  participle  of  a  verb  estamper, 
or  estampir,  to  strike  with  the  foot  or  stamp.  (Old 
Germanic  stamfon,  and  modern  German  stampfen.)  The 
estampie,  then,  would  be,  primarily,  a  dance  in  which 
the  accent  was  marked  by  a  tap  of  the  foot,  this  charac- 
teristic feature  giving  the  name  to  the  dance.  Did  the 
medievals  possess  a  technique  of  dancing?  Can  we 
reconstruct  from  their  pictures  and  monuments  the 
elements  of  a  medieval  orchestic,  as  a  contemporary 
Hellenist  and  musician,  M.  Emmanuel,  has  so  success- 
fully done  for  Greek  antiquity?2  It  is  quite  possible, 
although  research  has  not  even  begun,  but  a  musical 
treatise  should  not  concern  itself  with  the  problems  of 
chorography.  Apart  from  professional  technique,  the 
texts  of  the  compositions  enable  us  to  form  a  general  idea 


1The  student  of  thirteenth-century    dances    is  referred  to  the 
author's  work  mentioned  on  page  37,  quotation  being  impossible  here. 

2M.  Emmanuel,  Essai  sur  V Orchestique  grecgue,  D.  Litt.  thesis, 
Paris,  1895;  8V0. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      41 

of  the  movements  and  evolutions  with  which  medievals 
amused  themselves  in  their  little  baleries  and  caroles. 

We  must  picture  to  ourselves  a  chain  (continuous  or 
broken)  of  girls  and  men  dancing.  The  usual  procedure 
is  an  alternation  of  three  steps  and  a  halt  on  one  foot. 
We  shall  see  later  how  the  combination  of  the  musical 
rhythm  with  the  poetry  results  often,  though  not  in- 
variably, in  a  melodic  phrase  of  four  bars,  sometimes 
iambic,  sometimes  trochaic,  and  sometimes  dactylic. 
In  the  present  case,  taking  the  spring  at  the  beginning 
of  a  step  as  coinciding  with  the  downbeat  of  a  bar,  we 
get  three  springs,  three  steps,  three  bars,  with  the  halt 
on  the  fourth  bar  and  on  the  pause  at  the  end  of  the  verse. 
This  reconstruction  is  based  on  the  combination  of  two 
factors,  and  the  conclusion  offered  is,  of  course,  no  more 
than  conjecture. 

We  must  not  leave  the  instrumental  estampie  without 
recalling  that  there  was,  at  the  same  period,  a  vocal 
estampie,  leading  to  the  dance  set  to  song.  Some  of  these 
are  very  pretty;  one  is  particularly  interesting,  for  it 
has  a  little  history  well  worth  recording.1 

The  poet^  Rambaut  de  Vaqueiras,  whose  productive 
period  is  embraced  between  1180-1207,  was,  his  bio- 
graphers say,  the  son  of  a  poor  gentleman  named  Peirol, 
attached  to  the  castle  of  Vaqueiras  and  supposed  to  be 
mad.  After  being  in  the  service  of  William  of  Baux, 
Prince  of  Orange,  no  doubt  as  a  jongleur,  Rambaut  betook 

^he  text  will  be  found  in  Fol.  62  of  Fr.  MS.  22543,  in  the  Biblio- 
theque  Nationale.  We  have  adopted  the  text  in  M.  Appel's  Chres- 
tomathie  provenqale,  p.  89.  Leipzig,  1895;  8V0. 


L 


42        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

himself  to  the  court  of  Boniface  II  of  Montferrat,  where 
he  was  unlucky  enough  to  fall  in  love  with  the  marquis's 
sister,  Beatrice,  the  wife  of  the  Lord  of  Savona.  She 
returned  his  love,  and  their  passion  seemed  to  be  an  ideal 
theme  for  the  traditional  ballad;  all  went  as  well  as 
possible,  until  the  lovers'  happiness  roused  the  envy  of 
the  losengiers  (parasites),  the  gossips  of  medieval  liter- 
ature, who  heckled  the  Lady  Beatrice  thus:  "Qui  est 
aquest  Ralmbautz  de  Vaqueiras?  Si  tot  lo  marques  Va 
fait  cavalier,  sapchatz  que  non  es  onors  ni  a  vos  ni  al 
marques."  (Who  is  this  Rambaut  de  Vaqueiras?  Al- 
though your  brother  the  Marquis  has  made  a  knight  of 
him,  you  must  see,  Madame,  that  it  reflects  credit  neither 
upon  the  Marquis  nor  on  yourself.)  Discretion  being 
the  first  principle  of  courtly  love  in  the  middle  ages, 
Lady  Beatrice  concluded  that  Rambaut  had  been  boast- 
ing, so  the  gallant  jongleur  received  an  angry  dismissal. 
No  more  songs!  No  more  love-meetings!  Rambaut 
became  taciturn  and  moody. 

One  of  the  oldest  manuscripts  that  give  the  biography 
of  the  poet  relates  the  sequel.  At  about  this  time  there 
came  to  the  court  of  the  Marquis  two  French  jongleurs, 
skilful  performers  on  the  viele.  On  one  occasion  they 
played  an  estampida,  greatly  to  the  delight  of  the  marquis 
and  the  knights  and  ladies.  But  Sire  Rambaut  showed 
so  little  pleasure  in  the  performance  that  the  Marquis 
noticed  it.  "Come,  my  Lord  Rambaut,"  he  cried,  "can 
you  not  sing,  can  you  not  be  merrier  to  such  a  pretty 
tune,  seeing  that  you  have  beside  you  so  lovely  a  woman 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       43 

as  my  sister,  who  admits  you  to  her  circle  and  is  the 
most  valiant  lady  in  Christendom?"  Rambaut  replied 
with  a  refusal.  The  marquis,  well  acquainted  with  the 
state  of  affairs,  turned  to  his  sister  and  said:  "Madame 
Beatrice,  for  love  of  myself  and  the  company,  prithee 
beg  of  Rambaut,  by  your  love  and  courtesy,  to  join  in 
the  song  and  recover  his  old  gaiety!" 

And  Madame  Beatrice  was  sufficiently  courtly  and 
generous  to  beg  Rambaut  to  take  heart  of  grace,  and, 
for  love  of  her,  to  throw  off  his  dismal  looks  and  compose 
a  new  song.  With  this  persuasion  Rambaut  made  an 
estampida  in  the  following  terms  (don  Raimbautz  per 
aquesta  razon  que  vos  avetz  ausit,  fetz  la  stampida  que 
dis  aisi): 

Kalenda  maia, 
Ni  flor  de  faia, 
Ni  cant  d'ausell... 

And  the  biographer  adds:  "This  estampida  was  made 
to  the  air  of  the  estampida  which  the  jongleurs  played 
on  their  viele"  (aquesta  'stampida  fo  facha  a  las  notas  de 
la  'stampida  quel  joglar  fasion  en  las  violas) . 

*  Gai 


'J 

Ka    -    len  -  da          ma    -         -    ya       Ni        fuelhs     de            fa     - 

ya     Ni        chanz    d'au    -  zelh_     ni         flors    de          gfla      -       ya     Non 


0  <    J   I  d_y  i  ,j     J   i  «    *£ 

es      quern       pla    -          -  ya.  -Pros       dom  -   na  g'ua      •     ya,     Tro 


44        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 


r   r  i  r-*-''-'-J    •>  < 


qu  un     ys     -     nelh_    mes   -    sat   -  giei  a    -          -  ya  Del       vos  -  tre 

-J  y  N   J  i  j_j  i  j  j  N   J  i  Y  ^^ 

bel    cors,.    quern     re    •     tra        -        ya,  Pla  -  zer      no  -    velh     qu'A  - 

.  ? 


•^  '  J    J  '   J.    '  J    J   ' 


_mor_s_miL_ — tea.      --     ya,    E  ja     -      ya     Em    -    tra     -    ya     Vas 

> 


*    j  i  j    j  i  j  j  i-^.nrj.    i  j  ^^ 

vos,     dom    -   na      ve     - — ra     ^        r  ya;     E  cha      -      ya        De 


J.     I  J       J     I    <*       «M    J        J    I 


pla    -       ya       Vge    .    los,      ans        quern      n'es      .      tra 

II 

Ma  belh'  amia, 
Per  Dieu  no  sia 
Que  jal  gelos  de  mon  dan  ria; 
Que  car  vendria 
Sa  gelozia 

Si  aitals  dos  amans  partia; 

Qu'ieu  ja  joyos       mais  no  seria 
Ni  joys  ses  vos       pro  nom  tenria; 
Tal  via 
Faria 

Qu'om  ja  mais  nom  veiria. 
Selh  dia 
Morria, 
Donna  pros,  qu'ieus  perdria. 

Ill 

Quo  m'er  perduda 
Ni  m'er  renduda 
Dona,  s'enans  non  1'ai  aguda? 
Que  drutz  ni  druda 
Non  es  per  cuda; 
Mas  quant  amans  en  drut  se  muda, 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      45 

L'onors  es  grans      queylh  n'es  creguda. 
El  belh  semblans     fai  far  tal  bruda; 
Que  nuda 
Tenguda 

Nous  ai  ni  d'als  vencuda; 
Volguda 
Crezuda 
Vos  ai  ses  autr'  ajuda.1 


That  is  the  story;  the  essential  point,  musicologically, 
is  that  the  words  of  Kalenda  maia  were  written  by 
Rambaut  de  Vaqueiras  to  an  instrumental  melody. 

6.      THE   SONGS   WERE   DANCED. 

This  form  of  art  combined  three  elements,  music, 
poetry  and  dancing.  It  introduced  a  protagonist,  or 
principal  singer  (male  or  female),  and  a  chorus.  This 
combination  required  a  certain  amount  of  organisation, 
to  prevent  confusion.  The  part  allotted  to  each  had 

1 1.  Neither  the  first  of  May,  nor  the  [first]  leaf  on  the  beech,  nor 
the  song  of  the  birds,  nor  the  gladiolus  in  flower,  can  rejoice  my 
heart,  noble  and  beautiful  lady,  until  I  can  see  a  swift  messenger 
arrive,  bringing  words  of  comfort  from  you  to  this  love  of  mine,  until 
I  can  throw  myself  at  your  feet  (?)  and  until  I  can  see,  before  I 
leave  you,  my  jealous  rival  struck  down  by  the  lightnings  of  your 
wrath. 

II.  My  Lady,  Heaven  grant  that  the  jealous  one  rejoice  not 
at  my  discomfiture:  his  jealousy  would   cost  him  dear   (?)   did  it 
succeed  in  separating  two  lovers  like  us.     I  should  never  be  joyful 
again;  at  least,  no  joy  without  you  could  be  sweet;  I  would  go  away, 
none  should  ever  see  me  again;  nay,  rather,  noble  lady,  I  should  die 
on  the  day  that  I  lost  you. 

III.  But  how  could  I  lose  you,  how  could  I  regain  a  lady  who 
had  never  been  mine?     It  is  not  in  imagination  alone  that  one  can 
be  lover  or  mistress;  when  the  suitor  earns  the  title  of  lover,  great 
honour  is  his.     The  gracious   manner  of  your  welcome  made  me 

think  that  I   had   deserved but   no   such  thing!     I  sought  you 

and  I  craved  for  you,  but  never  obtained  your  favour. 

(From  M.  Jeanroy's  translation.) 


46        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

to  be  clearly  established,  and  the  solo  part  and  the  chorus 
part,  the  latter  of  less  importance,  carefully  differentiated. 

M.  Jeanroy,  therefore,  rightly  assumes  that  the  orig- 
inal object  of  the  songs  in  set  form  was  to  accompany 
dancing.  We  find  them  appearing  in  the  thirteenth 
century;  two  are  especially  popular,  the  balade  and  the 
rondeau,  but  in  the  following  century  we  see  the  poetical 
and  musical  aspects  regulated  by  increasingly  rigid 
rules  and  the  number  of  compositions  in  this  style 
grows  apace;  Guillem  de  Machaut  handles  them  with 
surprising  mastery. 

Side  by  side  with  the  dances  which  are  nothing  but 
dances,  recent  research  has  established  the  existence  of 
mime-dances,  a  charming  variety  of  miniature  play  with 
singing  and  dancing  characters;  adopting  the  medieval 
name,  we  will  call  them  baleries.  Here,  however,  we  no 
longer  find  the  set  form;  it  is  ousted  by  dramatic  action. 

I  have  spoken  of  balades,  rondeaux  and  baleries;  these 
terms  require  more  exact  definition. 

(a)  THE  BALADE.  At  the  time  of  which  we  write, 
the  middle  and  perhaps  till  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  balade  is  not  so  rigidly  constructed  as  in 
the  following  period.  Specimens  handed  down  from 
the  time  of  of  the  troubadours  show  many  licences.  I 
recall  one  example,  the  famous  A  I'entrada  in  the  Saint- 
Germain-des-Pres  song-book.  This  'dancing-song*  is 
written  in  a  very  ancient  and  simple  form.  It  is  com- 
posed of  single-rhymed  verses  sung  by  a  soloist,  followed 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       47 


by  a  refrain  repeated  by  the  chorus.  It  further  appears 
that  the  exclamation  Eya  at  the  end  of  each  line  was 
given  out  by  the  chorus;  but  this  is  an  exceptional  case. 
The  text  must  be  quoted.1 

Vif  LE  SOLISTE-  LE  CHOEUR   ••, 


1'en  -.    tra-'-da-          del     .terns      clar 
LE  SOLISTE 


LE  CH(EUR 


E      per        je  -  los         ir  -  ri 
LE  SOLISTE 


pa 


tar 


Vol       la  re   -  gr'i 


aa     mos   -  trar   Qu'el 
LE  CH(EUR 


a    -   mo    -    ro     - 


los,       Lais    .    saz nos,      Lais    -    saz 


lar. 


en    •    tre 


nos,. 


II 


en     -     tre 


*     LE  CH(EUR 

Per      jo     . 

ia        re     -     co    •    nr 
LE  SOLISTE 

en    -    gar 

s 


.r   r  i  r    r  '  r  r  i  r  -  •  i    i  • — — 

A   -    la      '     vi a    -    la     -    vi  -       -       -a,      je    -    los,    je  - 


El'  a  fait  per  tot  mandar, — Eya, 
Non  sia  jusqu'a  la  mar, — Eya, 

1  This  delightful  balade  has  already  been  published,  in  La 
chanson  populaire  dans  les  textes  musicaux  du  moyen  age  (Paris, 
Champion,  1804).  Any  discrepancy  noted  is  due  to  recent  research 
and  conclusions  since  formed.  See  also,  Julien  Tiersot,  Histoire 
de  la  Chanson  Populaire  en  France,  Paris  (Heugel),  1889:  page  371, 
where  it  is  noted  in  double  time.  TB. 


48        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Piucela  ni  bachalar, — Eya, 
Que  tuit  non  venguan  dangar 
En  la  dansa  joioza. 
Alavi\  alavia,  etc. 

Ill 

Lo  reis  i  ven  d'autra  part, — Eya, 
Per  la  dansa  destorbar, — Eya, 
Que  el  es  en  crematar, — Eya, 
Que  on  no  li  voill'  emblar 
La  regin'  aurilloza. 
Alavi',  alavia,  etc. 


When  the  fine  weather  returns,  (Eya)  to  resume  her  joyousness 
(Eya)  and  to  annoy  the  jealous,  (Eya)  the  Queen  wishes  to  make 
a  show  of  being  in  love. 

Chorus.  Fly  away,  far  away,  ye  jealous,  leave  us,  leave  us  to 
dance  by  ourselves,  by  ourselves! 

II 

She  has  proclaimed  far  and  wide  that,  from  here  to  the  sea,  there 
shall  be  neither  maid  nor  youth  but  must  dance  in  the  joyous  dance. 
Fly  away,  etc. 

But  the  King  arrives  from  another  land,  to  disturb  the  dance, 
for  he  is  in  dread  lest  one  should  take  away  from  him  the  Queen 
of  April.  Fly  away,  etc. 

An  examination  of  ancient  types  of  balade  shows  the 
refrain  to  be  the  usual  characteristic,  forming  the  chorus 
to  the  song. 

(b)  THE  RONDEAU,  highly  popular  from  the  thir- 
teenth century  onwards,  seems  to  have  had  its  prototype 
in  contemporary  Latin  poetry,  in  which  the  same  art- 
form  is  prevalent.  But  while  the  Latin  rondeau  has, 
usually,  several  verses,  that  in  the  vulgar  tongue  has  but 
one,  being  the  rondeau  sengle  of  the  poets,  and  it  is  only 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       49 

in  the  fourteenth   century   that   we   find   the   French 
rondeau  developed  to  any  greater  length. 

The  construction  of  the  rondeau  in  the  time  of  the 
lyrical  trouveres  is  as  follows.  The  groundwork  is  a 
refrain  of  two  lines.  This  distich  is  some  commonplace 
or  'catch-word'  of  popular  verse,  something  quite 
familiar,  perhaps  a  sentence;  like  some  master-key  of 
poetry,  the  same  refrain  appears  constantly,  not  only  in 
the  rondeau,  but  even  in  the  motets,  pastorals  and 
ballads.  The  rondeau  develops  the  idea  contained  in 
the  initial  refrain.  Let  us  call  the  two  lines  of  this  refrain 
AB.  The  Rondeau  goes  on  with  a  line  a,  rhyming  with 
the  first  line  of  the  refrain.  The  line  A  follows  a,  then 
come  two  new  lines,  a  and  6,  corresponding  in  metre  and 
rhyme  to  the  first  two  lines;  then  a  repetition  of  the 
refrain  rounds  off  the  verse.  Putting  these  constituents 
in  order  we  get  a  little  verse  of  eight  lines,  made  up  thus: 

AB  a  A  ab  AB. 

The  probable  interpretation  of  this  rondeau  can  be 
imagined.  It  is  shared  between  a  principal  character, 
the  leader  or  conductor  of  the  dance,  or  the  principal 

-      Mcde're  ^-r-^ 


\     f\  J         I       'J  *          \ 


En  -  si          va gut       a     •    mours  De  -  matin* 


^=4 

a 

&F= 

son       com    -    mant. 

-f-^-^ 
A         qui          que  

soit       do    -     lours,                 fyi    -    si             va  gut         a   - 

50        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOUh. 


"  f  i  r  *  i  r  w  'i  .*  •'  i "  *  i " 

mours,  As      mau    -  vais est      Ian-  grours  Nos  -  biens 


mais non       por    -    quant, 


mant. 


singer,  and  the  chorus.  The  protagonist  sings  the  whole 
verse;  the  chorus  replies  with  the  lines  of  the  refrain 
which  begins  the  song,  singing  them  in  the  middle  and 
at  the  end.  One  example  chosen  from  a  large  selection 
will  serve  to  show  how  a  rondeau  worked  out  in  per- 
formance.1 

I  would  mention,  in  passing,  the  interesting  connection 
between  the  rondeau,  as  it  develops  century  by  century, 
and  the  classical  rondo-form,  the  logical  descendant  of 
the  primitive  type. 

(c)     THE   BALERIE.      Intimate   knowledge   of  our 
medieval  literature,  combined  with  remarkable  insight, 

1  This  rondeau  is  taken  from  MS.  264,  fol.  181,  in  the  Bodleian 
Library  at  Oxford. 

This  celebrated  manuscript  contains  some  beautiful  illumination 
and  decoration,  of  the  fourteenth  century.  This  rondeau  (an  ex- 
quisite specimen)  has  been  published  in  facsimile  in  Stainer's  "Early 
Bodleian  Music"  (2  vols.),  London,  Novello,  1901.  (Vol.  I,  fac- 
simile IX;  Vol.  II,  text,  page  23.)  TR. 

(Thus  he  goes  whom  love 
Subjects  to  his  command, 
To  whomsoever  love  is  pain; 
Thus  he  goes  whom  love — 
To  the  wicked  it  is  sorrow, 
Nevertheless  to  us  it  is  a  blessing. 
Thus  he  goes  whom  love 
Subjects  to  his  command.) 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      51 

enabled  M.  Joseph  Bedier,  Gaston  Paris'  successor  in 
the  College  de  France,  to  suggest  a  new  form,  with  an 
ingenious  interpretation,  of  certain  "dancing-songs" 
which  defied  explanation  when  treated  as  merely  vocal 
works  for  singer  or  chorus.  I  need  only  quote  an  article 
on  Les  plus  anciennes  danses  frangaises,  published  by 
M.  Bedier  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes1  (1906).  "Try 
them  with  characters,  like  a  vocal  ballet,  and  these 
fragments  of  dancing-songs  become  alive  at  once.  Some 
of  the  texts  make  it  clear  that  the  dancers  did  not  join 
hands,  as  in  the  ordinary  carole,  but,  in  the  happy  phrase 
of  the  author  of  Guillaume  de  Dole,  'they  danced  and 
sang  with  their  arms  and  hands.'  Some  fragments  in- 
vite the  theory,  not  of  two  groups  or  alternating  choruses, 
but  of  two  or  three  dancers  acting  a  little  scene." 

From  this  starting-point,  M.  Bedier,  gifted  with  the 
memory  necessary  for  the  storing  up  of  his  gleanings, 
arrives  at  the  reconstruction  of  several  scenarios  of 
dances,  which  were  probably  acted  and  danced  at 
manorial  entertainments  to  while  away  the  tedium  of 
rainy  days  or  winter  evenings;  every  social  gathering 
had  its  divertissements.  In  the  time  of  Saint  Louis 
these  little  balerie  scenes  constituted  the  popular  drama. 

First,  there  is  the  "chaplet"  scene,  where  a  lady, 
toying  in  solitude  with  a  garland  of  flowers  in  a  grove, 
pairs  off  with  a  young  nobleman  sent  by  a  menestrel 
de  vielle.  Then  there  is  the  balerie  of  the  queen  of 
spring  (see  A  Ventrada  del  terns  clar,  page  47);  then  the 

1  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  398  et  seq. 


52  TROUVfcRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

bois  d' amour  (Cupid's  wood),  hallowed  and  mysterious, 
known  only  to  lovers: 

Je  gart  le  bos 
Que  nus  n'en  port 
Chapel  de  flors,  s'il  n'aime. 

(I  guard  the  wood  whence  none  save  lovers  may  bear  gar- 
lands away.) 

Then  we  have  the  elopement  scene,  where  a  woman 
mimes  and  dances,  probably  sheltered  by  a  friendly 
chorus  and  trying  to  escape  the  watchful  eye  of  a  jealous 
husband.  The  theme  of  the  danse  robardoise  is  the  stolen 
kiss.  And,  lastly,  there  is  the  great  favourite  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  Bele  Aelis.  One  of  the  trouveres 
who  utilised  this  theme,  no  doubt  the  last  to  do  so,  was 
Baude  de  la  Quariere,  who  composed  a  song  full  of 
charming  details  but  almost  unintelligible  as  to  its 
scheme.  "Each  phrase,"  writes  M.  Bedier,  "is  perfectly 
clear  as  well  as  pretty,  but  any  attempt  to  link  them 
together  produces  obscurity."1  One  is  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  piece  is  really  a  dialogue.  "After 
each  couplet  by  one  of  the  dancers  the  chorus  chimes  in 
with  seven  lines.  Like  the  chorus  in  a  Greek  comedy,  it 
associates  itself  with  the  feelings  of  the  principal  charac- 
ters. It  incites  them  to  love,  and  recapitulates  in  these 
seven  lines  the  chief  maxims  of  courtly  love.  Then,  in 
the  last  five  lines  of  the  verse,  we  have  a  second  little 
balerie  inset,  so  to  speak,  each  of  the  actors  singing  in 
turn.  This  piece  of  Baude's  represents,  in  our  opinion, 
a  formal  dance,  a  properly  constructed  play  rather  than 
1  Page  415  of  the  article  quoted  above. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       53 


a  mere  divertissement  for  the  performer's  amusement; 
the  share  taken  by  the  chorus  is  more  of  a  musical 
commentary  than  a  choregraphic  framework."1  To-day 
Fair  Aelis  is  merely  a  dried-up  blossom  lying  between  the 
leaves  of  a  ponderous  manuscript.  The  transcription 
of  a  fragment  cannot  restore  its  freshness — only  the 
original  surroundings  could  do  this — but  it  can  at  least 
give  it  a  semblance  of  life.2 


p 


LE    CH(EUR 


r  r  i  r    i   r  IF    r  ^  r  '  r 

Main    se  le      -     va      la  bien        faite     A  -  e        -       Us. 


ELLE 


f  r  r  ir   i  r  i  f  r 


_| ,_, 0_f_ 1 

'Vous     ne  sa    -    ves    que  li          lour  -  se  -  g-nols     dist?  II     dist  c'a  - 

LE  CHOSUR 


gnols,         Mais    je         di      que         oil      est       fols 


i  T  r 


Qui      d'a     -     mor 


veut—      par    -    tir. 

i    


Fine 


mours     lo    -     iaus     Est         boene     a 


main 


te      -     nir. 


Lo  -  ial         a  -  mor        at      fro    -    ve   ~  e,          Ne      tn'en      par  •  ti  - 

1  Page  416  of  the  article  quoted  above. 

2  See  La  Chanson  de  Bele  Aelis  par  le  trouvere  Baude  de  la  Quaritre, 
published  by  R.  Meyer,  J.  Bedier  and  P.  Aubry,  Paris,  8VO,  1904; 
certain  emendations  have  been  made  in  the  present  transcription, 
made  four  years  later. 


TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

ELLE        <|) 


r  '  i   r  * 

;ai         bone      a  - 


ra       nens 


'Et          pour      gou         que      j's 


M 


"  i ' "  T  i  r  r  '  '^J 

mor,     Keu    -    drai         la  vi    -    o  lete au 


j°r 


pum 


j  i  .1  J  i 


Soz      la        rai    -          -    me 


Bien.  doit 


(tt) 


i  *)  *  i  r   r  i  *_j  j  i  j^£>  ^ 


te  Qui    par        a     -    mours     ai    - 


II 

LE  CHCEUR  :  Bel  se  para  et  plus  bel  se  vesti. 

Lui  :  "Vos  aves  bien  le  rousegnol  oi  : 
Se  bien  n'ames,  amors  aves  tra'i." 

LE  CHCEUR  :  Mai  ait  qui  le  trahira  ! 
Ki  les  dous  maus  sentira 
Bien  li  ert  guerredone. 
Nus  ne  sent  les  maus,  s'il  n'aime, 
V  s'il  ri*a  ame. 
Je  le  sent, 
La  dolour  sovent ! 

Lui  :  "Et  pour  c.ou  que  j'ai  bien  ame, 
Amie  ai  a  ma  volente, 
Bele  et  jointe; 
Amors  ai  a  ma  volente, 
Si  m'en  tien  cointe." 


Ill 

LE  CHCEUR  :  Si  prist  de  Vaigue  en  un  dore  bacin. 

ELLE  :  "Li  rousegnols  nos  dit  en  son  latin  : 
"Amant,  ames,  joie  ares  a  tous  dis." 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       55 

LE  CHCEUR  :  Ki  bien  dime  joie  atent, 
Et  ki  d'amer  se  repent 
Ne  poet  joie  recouvrer. 
Ne  vos  repentes  mie 
De  loiaument  amer. 
Dehait  d'amer  ne  balera, 
Et  ki  ne  se  renvoisera! 

ELLE  :  "Tant  me  plaist  li  deduis  d'amor 
C'oublie  en  ai  la  dolor 

Et  contraire. 

Tant  ai  de  joie  a  mon  talent 
Que  je  n'en  sai  que  faire." 

IV 

LE  CHCEUR  :  Lava  sa  bouche  et  ses  oex  et  son  vis. 

Lui  :  "Buer  fu  cil  nes  ki  est  loiaus  amis  ! 
Li  rousegnols  Ten  pramet  paradis." 

LE  CHCEUR  :  De  ce  sui  lies  et  joians 
C'ainc  ne  fui  las  ne  restans 
De  souffrir  la  douce  dolour. 
II  pert  bien  a  mon  viaire 
Que  j'aim  par  amors. 
Vos  qui  d'amors  vives, 
Paradis  vos  atent. 

Lui  :  "Se  Dieu  plaist,  jou  i  serai  mis, 
Car  ja  mais  plus  loiaus  amis 

Ne  vivra. 

Cascuns  dit  c'amours  1'ocist, 
Mais  jo  sui  ki  garira." 

V 

LES  DEUX  DANSEURS  CHANTENT  AVEC  LE  CHCEUR 

Si  s'en  entra  la  bele  en  un  gardin. 
Li  rousegnols  un  sonet  li  a  dit  : 
"Pucele,  ames,  joie  ares  et  delit." 
La  pucele  bien  1'entent, 


56 


TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 


Et  molt  debonairement 
Li  respont  et  sans  orguel  : 
"Sans  amour  ne  sui  je  mie, 
Ce  tesmoignent  mi  oel. 
Bon  jour  ait  ki  mon  cuer  a, 
N'est  pas  od  moi  !" 
Pleiist  Dieu  ki  ainc  ne  menti 
Que  li  miens  amis  fust  or  ci 

A  sejour! 

Si  j'avoie  une  nuit  s'amour, 
Bien  vauroie  morir  au  jour! 


BELE  AELIS 


CHORUS:     At  morn  arose  the  shapely  Aelis. 

SHE:     Do  you  not  know  what  the  nightingale  says? 
He  says  that  love  dies  of  false  lovers. 

CHORUS:      The  nightingale  says  true, 
But  I  tell  you  he  is  mad 
That  wishes  to  part  from  love. 
Great  and  loyal  passions 
Are  good  to  maintain; 
Loyal  love  have  I  found, 
Nothing  born  shall  part  me  from  it. 

SHE:     And  because  I  have  good  love 
I  will  gather  violets  by  day, 
Under  the  branches. 
Who  loves  for  love's  sake 
Should  gather  violets. 

II 

CHORUS:     Fair  is  her  adorning  and  fairer  still  her  tiring. 

HE:     You  have  heard  the  nightingale  aright; 
Who  loves  not  well,  is  false  to  love. 

CHORUS:     A  curse  on  him  who  would  betray  it! 
He  who  feels  its  sweet  pains 
Is  well  rewarded  by  it. 
None  can  feel  its  pains,  if  he  love  not, 
Or  has  never  loved. 
I  feel  it  often, 
That  pain! 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       57 

HE:     And  because  I  have  loved  aright 
I  have  a  lady  at  my  will, 
Fair  and  comely; 
I  have  love  at  my  will, 
And  it  rejoices  me. 


Ill 

CHORUS:     She  took  some  water  in  a  golden  ewer. 

SHE:     The  nightingale  tells  us  in  his  own  language; 

Lover,  love  on,  you  shall  have  joys  through  all  your 
days. 

CHORUS:     Who  loves  well,  expects  happiness, 
And  he  who  repents  of  loving 
Can  never  know  happiness  again. 
Repent  not  at  all 
Of  loving  loyally. 

He  who  is  unblest  in  love  shall  not  dance, 
Nor  shall  he  ever  rejoice! 

SHE:     So  much  the  joys  of  love  delight  me 
That  I  have  forgotten  its  pains 

And  difficulties, 

I  have  so  much  joy  at  my  command 
That  I  know  not  what  to  do  with  it. 


IV 

CHORUS:     She  bathed  her  mouth  and  eyes  and  face: 

HE:     In  good  time  was  he  born  who  is  a  loyal  friend! 
The  nightingale  promises  him  paradise. 

CHORUS  :     For  this  I  am  glad  and  joyful, 
That  he  was  not  weary  or  laggard 
In  suffering  the  sweet  torments. 
It  seems  to  me,  as  I  think, 
That  I  love  for  love's  sake. 
You  who  live  on  love, 
Paradise  awaits  you. 

HE:     Heaven  grant  that  I  be  placed  there, 
For  a  more  loyal  friend 
Can  never  live. 

Every  man  says  that  love  kills  him, 
But  I  am  one  whom  it  shall  cure. 


58        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

V 

THE  TWO  DANCERS  SINGING  WITH  THE  CHORUS 

The  fair  one  entered  the  garden; 
The  nightingale  sang  her  a  sonnet: 
"Maiden,  love,  you  shall  have  joy  and  delight." 
The  maiden  listened  well, 
And  very  composedly 
Replied,  yet  without  haughtiness, 

"I  am  by  no  means  without  love, 
Of  this  my  eyes  bear  witness: 
All  joy  to  him  who  has  my  heart, 

He  is  not  with  me  now!" 

Please  God  who  never  lies, 

That  my  friend  were  here 
To  stay  with  me! 

Could  I  enjoy  one  night  of  love, 

Right  glad  were  I  to  die  at  dawn! 

Finally,  in  the  category  of  dramatic  baleries,  we  must 
place  the  jeu  du  guetteur,  which  will  be  treated  later  under 
Albas. 

These  seigniorial  pastimes,  these  entertainments  got 
up  for  the  amusement  of  the  grand  folk,  are  very  much 
akin  to  our  modern  children's  songs;  they  have  the  youth 
of  both,  the  youth  of  temperament  and  youth  of  the 
genius  of  France. 

This  brief  sketch  does  not  pretend  to  trace  the  history 
of  the  dance  in  the  thirteenth  century,  but  merely  aims 
at  touching  on  what  we  know  of  it.  This  is  little  enough, 
in  truth;  but  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared  that,  for  the  pres- 
ent, it  is  all. 

4.     REVERDIES.     (Spring  Songs.) 

Of  all  the  minor  lyric  forms,  this  is  the  smallest,  and 
could  easily  be  passed  over  in  silence,  were  it  not  a  pity 
to  leave  unquoted  one  specimen  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
a  gem  of  medieval  song. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      59 

The  reverdie  properly  belongs  to  May-Day  festivities, 
but  in  the  hands  of  the  trouveres  the  popular  element 
signified  by  its  origin  receives  the  accolade  of  nobility. 
The  reverdie  thus  becomes  a  pastoral,  without  the  shep- 
herdess and  the  rustic  characters  found  in  the  pastoral 
proper.  Only  the  framework  remains,  and  this  rural 
framework  is  wonderfully  idealised.  The  fairy  setting 
is  intended  to  produce  the  illusion  of  spring,  even  of  a 
spring  morning,  and  on  this  fantastic  and  enchanting 
canvas  the  poet's  vision  is  portrayed.  Generally,  we  are 
transported  to  a  glade,  where  the  poet  dreams  under 
the  sunlit  blossoms  of  trees  that  shelter  the  birds  of 
the  'air.1  He  calls  upon  the  nightingale  to  sing,  and 
challenges  it  with  an  accompaniment  on  his  lute;  his 
song  runs  thus:2 


L) 

1  '  r  .... 

Vo   -  lez        vos      que         je        vos        chant 


.Un       son 


Vi   .  lain       nel     fist       mi  -  e, 


d'a  -  mors       a 


ve    -    nant? 


Ainz      le         fist      un         che  -  va     -    lier 


Soz     ibn  -  b're     dVin 


5S 


li    -    vier 


En 


tre      les         traz      s'a 


1  Bartsch,  I:  27,  28,  29,  30  a  and  b,  66;  II:  2. 

2  This  reverdie  is  taken  from  MS.  5198,  p.  366,  Bibliotheque  de 
1' Arsenal.     The  text  was  previously  published  by   K.   Bartsch  in 
Romanzen,  p.  23,  and  the  music  in  the  author's  Rythmique  musicale 
des  troubadours  et  des  trouveres,  p.  25. 


TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

II 

Chemisete  avoit  de  lin 
Et  blanc  peligon  hermin 
Et  bliaut  de  soie; 
Chauces  out  de  jaglolai 
Et  solers  de  flors  de  mai, 
Estroitement  chaucade. 

Ill 

Qainturete  avoit  de  fueille 
Qui  verdist  quant  li  tens  mueille 
D'or  est  boutonade. 
L'aumosniere  estoit  d'amor, 
Li  pendant  f  urent  de  flor  : 
Par  amors  fu  donade. 


Si  s'en  vet  aval  la  pree  : 
Chevaliers  1'ont  encontree, 
Biau  1'ont  saluade. 
"  Bele,  dont  estes  vos  nee?  " 
"  De  France  sui  la  loee, 
Du  plus  haut  parage. 

VI 

Li  rosignox  est  mon  pere, 
Qui  chante  sor  la  ramee 
El  plus  haut  boscage. 
La  seraine  ele  est  ma  mere, 
Qui  chante  en  la  mer  salee 
El  plus  haut  rivage." 


I.  Do  you  wish  me  to  sing  you  a  charming  love-song?  No 
villein  made  it,  but  a  cavalier,  in  the  arms  of  his  mistress  beneath 
an  olive-tree. 

II.  She  wore  a  cinglet  of  fine  linen,  cloak  of  white  ermine  and 
silken  tunic,  hose  of  golden  net,  and  shoes  of  May  blossoms,  en- 
twined around  her  feet. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      61 

III.  She  wore  a  girdle  of  leaves  made  green  by  the  rain;  it  was 
fastened  with  gold.  She  was  love's  almoner,  all  garlanded  with 
flowers:  she  was  love's  guerdon. 


V.     She  went  her  way  along  the  glade;  cavaliers  met  her  and 
gave  her  fair  greeting. 

"Lady  fair,  where  were  you  born?" 
"I  am  the  pride  of  France,  of  most  noble  lineage. 
VI.     "The  nightingale  that  sings  on  the  bough  of  the  farthest 
thicket  is  my  father;  the  siren  that  sings  by  the  farthest  shore  of 
the  salt  sea  is  my  mother." 


A  dreamland  scene  and  a  fairy  poem!  The  longest  of 
treatises  cannot  sum  up  the  characteristics  of  the  reverdie 
so  happily  as  M.  Bedier's  brief  description  in  his  lectures 
at  the  College  de  France:  "The  dream  of  a  spring  morn." 

5.     THE  PASTOURELLES.     (Pastorals.) 
The  pastoral  is  a  song  about  a  woman,  too,  but  the 
woman  is  a  shepherdess. 

The  meaning  is  not  derived  from  pastoralia,  songs 
devoted  to  rustic  matters,  but  from  pastorella,  scMig  of  a 
shepherdess.  The  pastoral  is  found  in  troubadour  poetry 
as  well  as  in  that  of  the  trouveres.  The  type  dates  from 
a  very  early  period;  one  of  the  prettiest  examples  is  the 
work  of  Marcabru,  and  Marcabru  is  a  pioneer.  His 
biographer  tells  us  that  even  Cercalmon,  the  oldest  of 
the  troubadours,  made  pastorals  "in  the  olden  style" 
(a  la  usanza  antiga),  which  argues  the  existence  of 
pastorals  in  Southern  France  towards  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century.  But  here  the  woman  no  longer  sings 
in  her  apartments:  she  sings  in  the  open  air,  in  the 
meadows,  by  the  bank  of  a  stream,  on  the  outskirts  of 
a  wood.  In  its  inception  the  song  of  the  shepherdess 


62        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

is  a  wild-flower.  Modern  pundits  have  stooped  to 
gather  it,  and,  pitiless  in  their  inquisitiveness,  have  asked, 
not  why  it  was  so  fresh  and  sweet  among  its  fellows, 
but  why  it  flourished  in  one  spot  rather  than  another, 
or  if  it  could  recall  the  hand  that  planted  it,  and  so  forth. 
Learned  philologians  from  over  the. Rhine,  and  ingenious 
scholars  like  Gaston  Paris  and  A.  Jeanroy,  have  dissected 
the  pastoral.  They  have  constructed  systems,  and  ticketed 
a  tiny  entity  with  formidable  words.  The  present  work, 
which  makes  no  pretence  to  science,  is  not  ashamed  to  be 
less  profound,  contenting  itself  with  such  information  as 
the  relics  themselves  can  afford. 

M.  Jeanroy,  however,  admirably  describes  the  usual 
theme  of  the  pastorals:  "A  knight — none  other  than  the 
poet — roams  the  country  at  daybreak,  a  prey  to  the 
cares  or  miseries  of  love.  In  a  meadow,  or  on  the  road, 
he  meets  a  young  shepherdess  wreathing  a  chaplet  or 
singing  a  song.  Enchanted  by  her  beauty,  he  dismounts 
and  woos  her  more  or  less  discreetly.  So  far  the  poems  are 
all  alike;  no  poet  ever  indulges  in  any  variant  of  the 
time-honoured  preamble,  but  at  this  point  the  modifica- 
tions come  in.  Often — this  is  the  most  common  form — 
the  shepherdess  requires  persistent  coaxing;  she  declines 
to  accept  as  genuine  a  passion  so  suddenly  conceived 
and  declared;  excusing  herself  on  the  score  of  the  in- 
feriority of  her  condition  and  the  simplicity  of  her  dress, 
she  sends  her  suitor  back  to  ladies  of  his  own  class,  or 
alleges  the  proximity  of  father  or  lover  working  in  the 
field  hard  by. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       63 

"But  the  gallant  knight  has  an  answer  for  every 
excuse,  violenting  protesting  his  love,  sudden  indeed,  but 
ardent  nevertheless;  he  launches  out  into  enthusiastic 
praises  of  the  girl's  beauty,  vows  himself  indignant  that 
she  should  vegetate  thus,  swearing  that  she  is  fit  for  a 
palace,  and  the  king's  son  would  be  proud  to  call  her 
his.  He  proposes  to  carry  her  off,  that  she  may  adorn 
his  castle  and  revel  in  his  wealth. 

"If  she  refuses  he  is  willing  to  handle  the  crook,  so 
that  he  may  be  near  her.  Sometimes  these  specious 
promises  are  unnecessary,  and  the  sight  of  a  jewel,  an 
'ermine  cloak,'  a  'scarlet  gown/  or  a  'golden  ring,' 
suffices  to  soften  the  capricious  beauty's  heart. 

"If  she  be  still  obstinate,  the  knight  does  not  scruple 
to  use  force  where  persuasion  has  failed.  Then,  of 
course,  he  forgets  all  his  promises,  remounts  his  charger, 
and  goes  on  his  way  unabashed. 

"Matters  do  not  always  run  so  smoothly;  sometimes 
the  lady  screams  for  help.  Her  father,  brother,  or 
lover,  rushes  out  of  a  convenient  thicket  and  valiantly 
protects  her  honour.  When  the  knight  finds  himself 
confronted  by  strong  opposition,  he  soon  makes  up  his 
mind." 

Lors  n'oi  je  talent  de  rire, 
Quant  irie  vi  le  pastor... 
Elle  me  comence  a  dire  : 
"Revenes  arier,  biaiis  sire  ; 
Je  vos  otroi  mon  amor  !" 
Mais  por  tot  1'or  de  1'empire, 
Ne  fuisse  tomes  vers  lor. 

Bartsch,  Romanzen,  III,  52,  61. 


64        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 


(Then  I  had  no  wish  to  laugh, 
When  I  saw  the  shepherd's  anger... 
She  began  to  cry  to  me: 
Come  you  back  again,  fine  sir, 
I  will  yield  to  you  my  love! 
But  not  for  all  the  empire's  gold 
Would  I  have  returned  to  them.) 


"If  he  make  resistance,  he  is  sometimes  worsted, 
and  does  not  escape  without  a  buffet  of  two,  as  he 
himself  acknowledges  with  excellent  grace."1 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  historians  of  literature 
and  their  learned  endeavours  to  trace  the  origin  of  the 
pastoral;  but,  being  concerned  with  the  musical  rather 
than  the  contentious  side  of  these  works,  we  shall  not 
join  the  fray.  In  any  case,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the 
pastoral  was  originally  a  monologue,  sung  by  a  shep- 
herdess, either  a  girl  who  pined  for  a  suitor,  or  a  wife 
who  sighed  for  a  lover.  From  this  is  evolved  the  dialogue 
between  a  shepherdess  and  her  shepherd;  later,  the 
introduction  of  the  aristocratic  element  brings  the 
gallant  knight  on  to  the  rustic  scene  and  the  three  stock 
characters  of  the  pastoral  make  each  other's  acquain- 
tance; not,  however,  always  in  company,  for  generally 
only  two  actually  appear,  the  shepherdess  and  the  knight. 
The  conversation  is  mostly  bright  and  entertaining. 
Here  is  a  specimen,  perhaps  the  oldest  extant,  by  the 
troubadour  Marcabru,  who,  be  it  noted,  was  a  con- 
firmed woman-hater.2 

1  Jeanroy,  Origines,  p.  2  et  seq. 

2  This  pastoral  is  in  fol.  5,  MS.  fr.  22543,  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 
Several  editions  of  the  text  have  appeared. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      65 


r  r 

L'au-  trier       jost'    u      -~    na     se    •        •    bis  -  sa          Tro  -  bey 


r  f  i -*-£  iri    IF 


— r 

pas-to     -      ra    mes    -     tis    -  sa,         De    joi          e      de  sen   mas  - 


^fep^p 


sis  -  sa,  Si     cum         fil  -ha  de     vi    -      la  -   na;       Cap'  e 


KO  -  nel'  e    pe     -     Us  -  sa         Vest1  e  ca  -  mi      -       za    tres 

(i) 


Us  -  sa,         So  -  tlars  e    caus  -    sas    -de          la    • 

II 

Ves  lieis  vine  per  la  planissa  : 
"Toza,  fi'm  ieu,  res  faitissa, 
Dol  ai  gran  del  ven  que'  us  fissa." 
— "Senher,  so'm  dis  la  vilana, 
Merce  Dieu  e  ma  noirissa, 
Pauc  m'o  pretz  si'l  vens  m'erissa, 
Qu'alegreta  sui  e  sana." 

Ill 

— "Toza,  fi'm  ieu,  cauza  pia, 
Destoutz  me  sui  de  la  via 
Per  far  a  vos  companhia  ; 
Quar  aital  toza  vilana 
No  deu  ses  parelh  paria 
Pasturgar  tanta  bestia 
En  aital  terra  soldana." 

IV 

— "Don,  fetz  ela,  qui  que'm  sia, 
Ben  conosc  sen  e  folia, 
La  vostra  parelhadura, 
Senher,  so'm  dis  la  vilana, 


TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Lai  on  se  tanh  si  s'estia, 
Que  tals  la  cuj'  en  bailia 
Tener,  no'n  a  mas  1'ufana." 

V 

— "Toza  de  gentil  afaire, 
Cavaliers  fon  vostre  paire 
Que'  us  engenret  de  la  maire, 
Car  fon  corteza  vilana. 
Com  plus  vos  gart  m'etz  belaire, 
E  per  vostre  joi  m'esclaire, 
Si  fossetz  un  pane  humana." 

VI 

— "Don,  tot  mon  linh  e  mon  aire 

Vei  revertir  e  retraire 

Al  vezoig  et  a  1'araire, 

Senher,  so  dis  la  vilana  ; 

Mas  tals  se  fai  cavalgaire 

C'atrestal  deuria  faire 

Los  seis  jorns  de  la  semana." 


XI 

— "  Toza,  tota  creatura 
Revertis  a  sa  natura  : 
Parelhar  parelhadura 
Devem,  ieu  e  vos,  vilana 
Al  abric  lone  la  pastura, 
Que  mielhs  n'estaretz  segura 
Per  far  la  cauza  doussana." 

XII 

— "  Don,  oc,  mas  segon  drechura 
Cerca  fols  la  folatura, 
Cortes  cortez'  aventura, 
E'  1  vilas  ab  la  vilana  ; 
En  tal  loc  fai  sens  fraitura 
On  horn  non  garda  mezura, 
So  ditz  la  gens  anciana." 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       67 

XIII 

— "  Toza,  de  vostra  figura 
Non  vi  autra  plus  tafura 
Ni  de  son  cor  plus  trefana." 
— "Don,  lo  cavecs  vos  aura 
Que  tals  bad'  en  la  penchura 
Qu'autre  n'espera  la  mana." 

I.  One  day,  near  a  thicket,  I  met  a  sweet  young  shepherdess, 
the  gay  and  sprightly  daughter  of  a  villein,  dressed  in  cape,  kirtle, 
cloak,  slashed  tunic,  and  woolen  shoes  and  hose. 

II.  I  crossed  the  sward  to  meet  her;  "Fair  damozel,"  I  said, 
"enchanting  creature,  my  heart  is  sore  that  the  wind  should  thus 
vex  thee."     "Sir,"  said  she,  "thanks  to  God  and  my  nurse,  I  can 
laugh  at  the  wind,  for  I  am  happy  and  sound." 

III.  "Fair  damozel,"  said  I,  "sweet  charmer,  I  have  turned 
from  my  path  to  keep  thee  company;  for  such  a  child  should  not 
tend  her  flocks  alone  out  here,  without  a  chosen  escort." 

IV.  "Sir,"   said  she,   "whatever  be   my   qualities,    I   can  dis- 
tinguish between  wisdom  and  folly.     Keep  thine  acquaintance,  my 
lord,"  said  the  villein's  daughter,  "for  those  whom  it  befits;  many 
a  man  thinks  he  has  won  the  kernel  when  he  has  only  the  empty 
shell." 

V.  "Maid  of  high  degree,  some  brave  knight  was  surely  thy 
father;  the  mother  that  gave  thee  birth  came  of  noble  villein  stock; 
the  more  I  look  at  thee,  the  more  lovely  dost  thou  seem,  and  thy 
sprightliness  fires  my  heart.     Ah!     If  only  thou  wouldst  be  more 
human!" 

VI.  "Sir,  all  my  tribe  and  all  my  family,  I  see  them  returning 
to  resume  the  spade  and  plough:  but  one  there  is  who  calls  himself 
a  knight,  that  should  be  plying  this  trade  six  days  of  seven." 

XI.  "Fair  damozel,  every  creature  reverts  to  nature:  we  should 
make  a  fine  couple,  thou,  fair  villein,  and  I,  and  make  our  home  in 
these  meadows,  for  here  thou  wilt  more  readily  be  kind." 

XII.  "Yes,  sir,  but  if  all  be  right,  the  fool  seeks  folly,  and  the 
gentry  nobility;  leave  the  villein  to  his  own:  when  the  measure  fits 
ill,  then  wisdom  goes  a-begging,  says  the  adage." 

XIII.  "Young  maiden,  I  see  in  thy  face  naught  but  sauciness, 
nor  in  thy  wit  aught  but  mockery." 

"Sir,  thou  wast  born  to  the  screech-owl's  (?)  cry;  a  man  such 
as  thou  art  will  stand  agape  before  the  shadow,  while  another  swal- 
lows the  substance." 

(From  the  French  transcription  of  MM.  Dejeanne  and  Jeanroy.) 


68        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

But  let  not  the  rustic  simplicity  with  which  these 
songs  abound  deceive  us!  Though  the  middle  ages 
have  .neither  a  Watteau  nor  a  Florian,  they  have  their 
pastorals.  The  characters,  except  for  the  knight,  are 
rustics,  but  ordinarily  well-endowed  with  wit,  as  Mar- 
cabru's  shepherdess  testifies.  That  their  origin  was 
popular,  that  the  earliest  pastorals  were  the  work  of 
poets  sprung  from  the  people  and  writing  for  the  people, 
is  possible,  even  probable,  but  no  specimens  of  these 
first-fruits  have  come  down  to  us.  After  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century  the  troubadours  and  trouveres 
took  possession  of  this  type.  With  the  refinements  of 
their  art  they  handled  rural  life  in  the  same  spirit  as 
Marie-Antoinette  playing  at  farming  in  her  Trianon 
dairy.  The  musical  side  becomes  as  complete  as  that 
of  the  other  lyrical  types,  the  popular  style  loses  its 
individuality,  and  though  in  some  of  what  are  termed 
pastourelles  a  refrains  the  poet  has  interpolated  refrains 
borrowed  from  popular  minstrelsy,  this  would  seem  to 
be  no  more  than  a  tendency  to  follow  the  path  we  have 
outlined  for  them.  Troubadours  in  particular  remain 
drawing-room  poets  in  the  country,  and  carry  reminis- 
cences of  their  ladies  even  to  their  country  surroundings. 
Trouveres,  though  more  genuine,  are  not  always  success- 
ful in  disguising  artifice  or  patchwork,  and  just  as  the 
poet's  verses  have  lost  the  true  pastoral  spirit  in  word 
and  action,  so  does  the  music  fall  short  as  an  illustration 
of  true  popular  song  and  melody  for  pipe,  musette  or 
flageolet. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       69 

6.     THE  CHANSONS  D'AUBE,  ALBAS.  (Dawn-Songs, 
Serenades.) 

The  aube  of  the  trouveres,  the  alba  of  Provengal  poets, 
is  not  the  aubade,  of  which  the  earliest  examples  date 
no  farther  back  than  the  fifteenth  century.  Nor  is  the 
chanson  d'aube  a  woman's  song,  in  the  same  sense  as 
pastoral  or  the  ballad;  or,  rather,  if  there  is  a  woman 
in  the  song,  she  never  appears,  but  remains  hidden  in 
the  castle  chamber  and  watches  unseen  from  her  latticed 
window.  This  literary  product  was  a  particular  favourite 
of  the  German-speaking  trouveres,  the  Minnesanger; 
their  collections  contain  quite  a  hundred  chansons  d'aube. 
In  French  poetry  much  fewer  examples  are  to  be  found; 
the  works  of  the  troubadours  contain  but  seven,  and  those 
of  the  trouveres  but  four  chansons  d'aube  properly  so 
called. 

The  scheme  is  as  follows:  It  is  night,  and  the  lovers 
are  together,  so  oblivious  of  the  world  that  dawn  over- 
takes them,  and  it  needs  the  song  of  a  bird,  the  salutation 
of  a  friend,  or  the  vigilance  of  a  scout  (guetteur)  to  warn 
them  of  their  peril.  So  we  have  three  characters,  the 
two  lovers,  and  the  kind  friend  whose  duty  it  is  to 
announce  the  break  of  day.  They  do  not  always  appear  _ 
together;  the  night-watcher,  or  scout  (in  ancient  phrase- 
ology the  gaite),  who  is  thus  a  party  to  the  liaison,  is  a 
typical  character;  he  is  a  variant  of  the  seigniorial 
watchman  of  medieval  times,  charged  with  the  duty 
of  calling  the  hours  through  the  night  and  in  the  early 
morning;  perhaps,  too,  deputed  to  give  the  alarm  in 


70         TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

case  of  any  unusual  happening  within  the  castle  pre- 
cincts. But  should  the  chatelaine,  on  assignation  intent, 
forget  the  hour,  the  watchman,  in  whose  disinterested 
devotion  we  prefer  to  believe,  becomes  the  lady's  confi- 
dant. Suppose  the  lovers  to  be  dallying  in  the  vaulted 
chamber;  who  is  to  warn  them  against  surprise  and  the 
coming  dawn,  to  bid  the  lover  fly  under  the  shelter  of 
night's  fleeting  shades?  Who  is  to  warn  them  of  the 
returning  husband  and  the  prowling  spies?  The  watcher, 
no  less  timely  a  friend  to  lovers  than  to  poets.  This 
is  why  the  watcher  appears  to  be  an  indispensable  factor 
in  the  chanson  d'aube.  But  this  delicate  office  can  be 
undertaken  by  a  faithful  friend,  who  guards  the  threshold 
of  the  enchanted  bower;  it  will  be  seen  that  he  sometimes 
receives  but  sorry  recompense  and  that  warning  of  day's 
arrival  often  goes  unheeded.  The  bird,  the  common  lark 
that  heralds  the  day,  is  never  believed  by  the  lovers, 
who  decline  to  listen  to  it.  "No,"  says  the  incorrigible 
Romeo,  "it  is  not  the  day;  it  is  not  the  lark,  it  is  the 
nightingale,  the  lovers'  ambassador."  l  What  is  the  rela- 
tion of  these  elements?  Which  is  the  oldest?  What  is 
the  logical  and  chronological  order  of  these  characters 
in  the  evolution  of  this  type?  Scholars  like  Bartsch, 
Stengel,  Romer  and  Jeanroy  have  tackled  the  problem, 
but  no  solution  or  agreement  has  been  found.  We  do 
not  propose  to  add  to  the  confusion;  we  will  simply  con- 
sider what  lessons  musical  history  can  learn  from  the 
thirteenth-century  alba. 

1  The  author's  perversion  of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  III:v.     TR. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       71 


Of  the  albas  preserved  to  us,  one  at  least  appears  to 
be  a  masterpiece  in  miniature.  A  note  in  the  manu- 
script assigns  it  to  the  troubadour  Guiraut  de  Borneilh, 
(or  Bornelh).  The  first  verse,  in  modern  notation, 
runs  thus:1 

Mode're  * 


Reis    grjo-ri      -      os,       ve rais  lums. 


e       clar 


-lip  —  L  S  — 

=1= 

^= 

\  }    J7] 

L-zz  L  := 

^ 

tatz,. 


Deus     po  -  de    -    ros,      sen  -    her,         si la      vos_ 


platz, Al meu  com    -  panh    si -as      fi-zels  a     -      iu  *  da, 


1 — 
pos  .la         noitz    foirven   -    gru 


Qu'eu    non  lo 


J         I      J 


Et         a  -  des 


.  ba. 


(Glorious  King,  the  source  of  light  and  brightness, 
Almighty  God,  Lord,  if  it  be  Thy  pleasure, 
To  my  friend  be  a  true  defender, 
Who  does  not  see  that  night  is  past 
And  that  the  dawn  is  at  hand.) 

But  a  second  example,  an  anonymous  product  of 
Northern  France,  presents  a  more  elaborate  scheme. 
In  the  Provencal  alba  we  have  the  singer  warning  his 
friend,  and  the  friend's  reply,  expressing  regret  at  the 
approach  of  daylight.  On  the  other  hand,  the  alba  of 

1  The  original  text,  here  followed,  is  in  fol.  8,  MS.  fr.  22543. 
Bibliotheque  Nationale. 


72  TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

the  langue  d'o'il  is  much  more  complicated,  so  complicated 
indeed,  that  in  order  to  explain  it  correctly  the  com- 
mentators have  had  to  resort  to  at  least  six  or  seven 
schemes!1  This  is  the  song  called  Gaite  de  la  tor  (the 
watcher  on  the  tower) .  In  order  to  understand  it  we 
must  split  up  the  poem  into  sections  and  supply  stage 
directions  as  to  the  distribution  of  the  text,  these  being 
absent  in  the  only  manuscript  extant. 

M.  Bedier  goes  even  further  in  his  essay;  not  only 
does  he  accept  the  theory  of  distributed  dialogue  ad- 
vanced by  M.  Jeanroy,  but  he  reads  into  the  scene  a 
'society  play,'  which  might  be  called  the  "Watcher;" 
he  finds  in  it  the  theme  of  a  well-known  balerie,  somewhat 
after  the  style  of  a  nursery  rhyme.2 


/ 

f   r 

Gai  •  te 

'  [  r  '  r 

de       la          tor 

Gar    -   dez  en       -       tor     Les 

**  ffiurs 

^T- 

se         Deu 
3 

—  P  '-=p  
s   vos         voi     - 

e         Cor    sont        a      se    -    jor     Dame 

Pl 

et  

.      sei 

J   -J  f  j 

gnor      Et         la 

|       |     J        J 

"M^    fcl  1  J    J'l 

r   -  ron             vont       en       proi  -  e. 

-ff-J- 

^^ 

ifrrirrj|    ^ 

Hu      et 


hu 


hu       et 


hu_     Je 


l'ai_    ve 


La 


1  M.M.  Paulin  Paris,    Wolf,    Leroux  de    Lincy,  Gaston  Paris, 
Schlager  and  Jeanroy.      See  G.  Schlager,  Studien  iiber  das  Tagelied, 
Jena,  1895,  and  A.  Jeanroy,  Romania,  v.  XXXIII,  p.  616  (1904). 
Jeanroy's  theory  is  accepted  and  quoted  by  J.  Bedier  in  a  charming 
essay,  Les  plus  anciennes  danses  frangaises    ("Revue  des  Deux  Mon- 
des,"  1906,  p.  398  et  seq.)  mentioned  above. 

2  This  transcription  is  made    from  the  MS.  fr.  20050,  fol.  83, 
r°,  Saint-Germain-des-Pres  Song-Book,  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      73 


JUS- 

T^H 

j=±r4J  £jj: 

soz          la  cou 

droi   -  e 

Hu        el 

1 

1  '  A  J  ' 

hu        et 

&   J     J 

•Qj  r 

J.       1    J       ^      1 

hu      et         hu A        bien    pres         I'o     -    cir   -       ?    roi     .     e. 

I 

LE  COMPAGNON  DE  L*AMOUREUX  (parlant  au  guctteur) 

Gaite  de  la  tor, 
Gardez  entor 

Les  murs,  se  Deus  vos  voie, 
C'or  sont  a  sejor 

Dame  et  seignor 
Et  larron  vont  en  proie. 

LE  GUETTEUR  (jouant  de  la  trompe  etfaisant 
sa  ronde). 

Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu  ! 

Je  Fai  veil 

La  jus  soz  la  coudroie. 
Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu ! 
A  bien  pres  Focirroie. 

II 

LE  COMPAGNON  (au  guetteur), 

D'un  douz  lai  d'amor 

De  Blancheflor, 
Compainz,  vos  chanteroie, 

Ne  fust  la  poor 
Del  traitor 
Cui  je  redoteroie. 

LE    GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu  ! 

Je  Fai  veil 

La  jus  soz  la  coudroie. 
Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu ! 
A  bien  pres  Focirroie. 


74  TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

III 

LE  COMPAGNON  (rassure  sur  les  dangers  que  court  son  ami, 
au  guetteur,  I'invitant  a  se  reposer]. 
Compainz,  en  error 

Sui,  qu'a  cest  tor 
Volentiers  dormiroie. 
N'aient  pas  paor : 

Voist  a  loisor 
Qui  aler  vuet  par  voie ! 

LE  GUETTEUR  (rassure,  lui  aussi,  et  pret  a  se  reposer}. 
Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu  ! 

Or  soit  teu, 

Compainz,  a  ceste  voie ! 
Hu  et  hu  !  Bien  ai  seii 
Que  nos  en  avrons  joie. 

IV 

LE  COMPAGNON  (au  guetteur). 
Ne  sont  pas  plusor 

Li  robeor, 

N'i  a  c'un  que  je  voie, 
Qui  gist  en  la  flor, 
Soz  covertor, 
Cui  nomer  n'oseroie. 

LE    GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu ! 

Or  soit  tett, 

Compainz,  a  ceste  voie. 
Hu  et  hu !  Bien  ai  seii 
Que  nos  en  avrons  joie. 

V 

LE  COMPAGNON  (s'adressant  aux  amoureux  dans  la  tour}. 
Cortois  ameor, 

Qui  a  sejor 

Gisez  en  chambre  coie, 
N'aiez  pas  freor, 

Que  tresqu'a  [1]  jor 
Poez  demener  joie. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       75 

LE    GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu  et  hu  et  hu ! 

Or  soit  tett, 

Compainz,  a  ceste  voie, 
Hu  et  hu  !  bien  ai  seii 
Que  nos  en  avrons  joie. 

VI 

L'AMOUREUX  (sortant  de  la  tour). 
Gaite  de  la  tor, 

Vez  mon  retor, 
De  la  ou  vos  ooie. 
D'amie  et  d'amor 

A  cestui  tor 
Ai  ceu  que  plus  amoie. 

LE    GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu  ! 

L'AMOUREUX 
Pou  ai  geu 
En  la  chambre  de  joie. 

LE    GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu ! 

L'AMOUREUX 
Trop  m'a  neii    , 
L'aube  qui  me  guerroie. 

VII 

L'AMOUREUX 
Se  salve  1'onor 

Au  Criator 

Estoit,  tot  tens  voudroie 
Nuit  fei'st  del  jor ; 
Ja  mais  dolor 
Ne  pesance  n'avroie. 

LE  GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu ! 


76         TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

L'AMOUREUX 
Bien  ai  veil 
De  biaute  la  monjoie. 

LE  GUETTEUR 

Hu  et  hu ! 

L  AMOUREUX 

C'est  bien  seu. 
Gaite,  a  Dieu  tote  voie ! 

WATCHER  ON  THE  TOWER 

I 

THE  LOVER'S  COMPANION  (speaking  to  the  watcher). 
Watcher  of  the  tower, 
Look  around  the  walls, 

And  God  befriend  you; 
For  now  at  rest 
Are  lady  and  lord, 
And  the  robber  is  on  the  prowl. 

THE  WATCHER  (sounding  his  horn  and  going  his  rounds') 
Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 

I  saw  him 
There  under  the  hazel-thicket. 

Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 
I  should  rejoice  to  kill  him. 

II 

THE  COMPANION  (to  the  watcher). 
A  sweet  song  of  love, 

Of  Blanchefleur, 
Friend,  I  would  sing  to  you, 
Were  it  not  for  fear 

Of  the  traitor 
Whom  I  suspect. 

THE     WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 

I  saw  him 
There  under  the  hazel-thicket, 

Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 
I  should  rejoice  to  kill  him. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      77 

III 

THE  COMPANION  (reassured  as  to  the  risk  run  by  his  friend,  to  the  watcher, 

inviting  him  to  take  rest). 
Friend,  I  am  wrong, 
For  at  this  juncture 
I  would  gladly  sleep. 
Let  them  have  no  fear, 
Let  him  take  his  ease 

Who  wants  to  go  his  way! 

THE  WATCHER  (also  reassured,  and  ready  for  a  spell  of  rest}. 
Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 

Let  there  be  silence, 
Friend,  at  this  moment! 
Hu  and  hu!  I  knew  well 
That  we  should  find  joy  in  this. 

IV 

THE  COMPANION  (to  the  watcher). 
They  are  not  many, 

The  robbers, 
There  is  but  one  that  I  see 

Who  crouches  amid  the  flowers, 

In  company 
With  her  I  dare  not  name. 

THE   WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 
Now  let  there  be  silence, 
Friend,  at  this  juncture. 
Hu  and  hu!  I  knew  well 
That  we  should  find  joy  in  this. 

V 

THE  COMPANION  (to  the  lovers  in  the  tower). 
Courtly  lovers, 
Who  are  at  rest 
Within  the  quiet  chamber, 

Have  no  fear, 
For  till  daylight  come 
You  can  enjoy  your  happiness. 

THE   WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu  and  hu! 

Let  there  be  silence, 
Friend,  at  this  moment. 
Hu  and  hu!    I  knew  well 
That  we  should  find  joy  in  this. 


78        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

VI 

THE  LOVER  (coming  out  of  the  tower). 
Watcher  of  the  tower, 

Behold  my  return 
From  the  place  whence  I  heard  you. 

Of  love  and  lady, 

In  this  venture 
I  have  taken  that  which  I  like  best. 

THE    WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu! 

THE    LOVER 

I  have  tarried  a  little 
In  the  bower  of  joy. 

THE    WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu! 

THE    LOVER 

Too  much  it  irked  me, 
This  dawn  that  assailed  me. 

VII 

THE    LOVER 

Saving  the  honour 

Of  the  Creator, 
I  would  He  always  made 

Night  of  day; 

Then  never  more 
Should  I  have  pain  or  heaviness. 

THE   WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu! 

THE  LOVER 

Truly  have  I  seen 

The  quintessence  of  beauty — 

THE   WATCHER 

Hu  and  hu! 

THE  LOVER 

That  is  certain. 
Watcher,  God  keep  thee* 

We  have  already  expressed  our  opinion  on  this  sub- 
ject and  on  the  above  pretty  and  vivacious  interpretation. 


B.     COURTLY  POESY 

1.       COURTLY   POESY 

The  foregoing  compositions  are  for  the  most  part 
anonymous;  the  manuscripts  have  not  preserved  for  us 
the  name  of  the  poet,  and  where  the  author  of  the 
reverdie  or  pastoral  speaks  in  his  own  name,  he  does  it 
so  impersonally  that  his  individuality  hardly  shows  itself 
at  all.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  subjective  forms,  the 
poet's  personality  is  full  in  the  foreground,  and  the 
work  is  signed  by  him,  courtly  poems  being  seldom 
anonymous.  In  these  hundreds  of  poems,  which  consti- 
tute the  courtly  poesy  of  medieval  literature,  a  general 
theory  of  love  is  outlined:  though  quite  scholastic,  it 
is  not  without  beauty  or  grandeur,  but  it  is  all  speculation 
and  owes  nothing  to  reality.  The  theory  of  courtly 
love  is  a  mental  exercise,  not  an  analysis  of  the  human 
heart.  The  inspiration  of  poet  and  musician  act  upon 
one  another;  even  when  the  melodic  freshness  of  the 
character-songs  is  there,  the  idea  is  more  complex,  less 
spontaneous  and  transparent,  forming  the  first  princi- 
ples, quite  in  embryo,  of  the  thirteenth-century  aesthetics 
in  music.  The  influence  of  this  courtliness  on  musical 
achievement  compels  brief  attention. 

On  attempting  to  define  the  characteristics  of  courtly 
love  we  again  clash  with  the  general  theory  of  Gaston 


80  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Paris,  and  it  seems  as  if,  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
great  love-songs  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres,  so 
obscure,  so  abstract,  so  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  magic 
circle  of  medieval  art,  we  can  trace  a  reminiscence  of  the 
mai'eroles  and  reverdies.  What,  then,  are  the  common 
traits  which  connect  the  simplest  pastorals  with  the 
strangely  complex  songs  of  the  courtly  poets? 

First  of  all,  we  cannot  fail  to  observe  in  the  poetry 
of  the  trouveres,  and  more  especially  in  that  of  the 
troubadours,  in  the  poetry  of  rustic  and  exquisite  alike, 
one  common  characteristic,  the  inevitable  description 
of  spring.  Tt  appears  with  such  exasperating  persistency 
as  to  amount  to  an  obsession,  until  at  last  one's  eyes 
grow  weary  of  sunshine  and  the  surfeit  of  flowers  in  the 
pleasaunces.  We  long  for  the  rustle  of  yellowing  leaves 
and  the  crackle  of  dead  wood.  Like  the  crickets, 
these  medieval  poets  cannot  sing  in  winter;  they  must 
have  the  spring,  the  'stock'  opening  in  the  game,  the 
indispensable  introduction  of  love-songs. 

Again,  the  spring  of  the  year  calls  for  the  spring  of 
life,  youth  and  its  inseparable  companion,  joy.  With 
the  Provencal  poets,  joy  and  youth  (joia  et  joveri)  are 
always  coupled  together.  The  elderly  man  brings  sad- 
ness in  his  wake  and  the  medieval  lyric  knows  nothing  of 
the  poetry  of  dotage,  of  whitening  locks  and  bowed  head. 

Finally,  with  the  courtly  poets  as  with  the  poets  of 
pastorals,  ballads  and  reverdies,  love  consists  of  the 
attraction  of  forbidden  fruit  and  exists  only  outside 
marriage.  The  true  love  is  the  love  that  is  free;  from 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       81 

the  'Marote'  of  the  pastorals  to  the  'Louise'  of  Charpen- 
tier  this  idea  has  (ruled  the  Toost)  in  music.  And  this 
conception  is  certainly  lyrical;  so  the  sympathies  of 
poet  and  reader  go  out  to  lovers,  and  the  butt  of  the 
middle  ages  is  the  husband. 

But  here  the  differences  appear,  here  courtly  poesy 
becomes  self-conscious  and  turns  to  characterisation; 
this  kind  of  love  presupposes  a  lover  at  the  side  of  a 
married  woman,  but,  while  in  the  May-songs  the  craving 
for  love  calls  for  the  definite  realities  of  immediate 
satisfaction  and  enjoyment,  in  the  courtly  poems,  on  the 
other  hand,  love  is  a  cult,  the  cult  of  the  woman  to 
whom  the  poet  is  thrall,  and,  as  though  the  poet  had 
made  a  profane  adaptation  of  the  Thomist  doctrine  of 
perfection,  this  love-worship  renders  the  lover  more 
perfect  and  more  worthy  of  the  lady  of  his  thoughts  and 
desires. 

With  the  troubadours  and  trouveres,  indeed,  love 
is  neither  sensual  nor  passionate,  it  is  calculated  and 
calculating,  the  attraction  exercised  on  reason  by  beauty 
and  happiness.  Love  being  the  source  of  virtue,  one 
concludes  that  poets,  individually  and  collectively,  were 
more  often  lovers  than  husbands. 

The  lady  acclaimed  in  the  song  is  simply  "The  Lady," 
either  married  or  single:  it  is  but  rarely  that  we  learn 
her  name,  for  discretion  is  the  first  axiom  of  courtly  love; 
patience  is  the  second. 

"Discretion  is  enjoined,  not  merely  by  prudence,  but 
by  a  sentiment  so  subtle  that  the  least  publicity  would 


82        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

debase  it;  and  it  becomes  all  the  more  necessary  because 
the  losengiers  (gossips)  must  be  circumvented,  these 
being  conventional  characters  in  courtly  poesy,  whose 
function  is  to  ferret  out  true  and  loyal  love-affairs  and 
end  them  by  exposure.  Patience  is  no  less  sternly  in- 
sisted upon;  the  lover  must  submit  blindly  and  uncom- 
plainingly to  the  ordeal  imposed  by  the  lady  and  must 
await  her  pleasure,  mutely  and  respectfully  resigned: 
he  is  not  only  forbidden  to  sue  for  reward,  he  may  not 
even  commit  the  crime  of  confessing  his  passion."1 

The  curious  result  of  this  is  that  the  lady  always 
appears  in  such  a  magnificent  halo  of  nobility,  dignity, 
calm,  splendour,  and  even  purity,  that  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  believe  that  these  idols  of  poetical  adoration 
condescended  at  last  to  reward  (guerrodoner)  their  de- 
voted servants. 

The  contradiction  is  apparent,  but  has  not  discon- 
certed contemporary  writers;  we  will  follow  their  ex- 
ample, and  if  the  medley  of  ideas  so  subtle  as  to  be  almost 
unintelligible  often  obscures  our  view  of  the  realities,  and 
if  the  woman's  frailty  in  the  intrigue  is  often  too  cunning- 
ly concealed,  yet  assuredly  literature  contains  nothing 
more  discreet,  or  more  chaste  in  design,  than  these 
courtly  songs. 

One  has  only  to  read  Blondel,  Gautier  d'Epinal, 
Gillebert  de  Berneville,  and  many  others,  to  see  how 


1  A.  Jeanroy,  Les  Chansons,  in  Vol.  I,  p.  373,  of  YHistoire  de  la 
langue  et  de  la  litterature  frangaise,  published  by  Petit  de  Julle- 
ville  (1896). 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       83 

the  trouveres  proclaimed  the  virtues  of  suffering  in  love, 
that  joyful  and  precious  suffering  from  which  all  happi- 
ness springs;  for  true  happiness,  gladness  that  fears  no 
bitterness  or  rude  awakening,  joy  and  pure  enjoyment, 
are  the  outcome  of  faith  in  Love,  Love  being  almost  per- 
sonified into  a  feudal  lord,  the  never-failing  protector 
of  him  who  serves  his  master  well. 

This  doctrine  of  Love,  derived  from  Christianity,  is 
really  a  profane  adaptation  of  divine  love.  This  analogy 
will  be  referred  to  later,  but  for  the  present  let  it  be 
noted  that  love's  true  aim  and  influence  are  in  the  direc- 
tion of  happiness;  in  his  love-quest,  where  a  brave  array 
of  trials  endured  and  good  deeds  accomplished  is  needed 
to  bring  him  to  his  lady's  side  in  fairer  worth  and  honour, 
the  cavalier  mounts  the  ladder  of  perfection  and  finds 
himself  at  last  the  fin  ami  (perfect  lover),  worthy  perhaps 
of  the  reward  of  so  great  effort. 

With  the  ultimate  morality  of  these  adventures,  and 
the  value  of  tortuous  dialectic  on  the  casuistry  of  love, 
we  need  not  concern  ourselveiil  But  we  may  assert 
that  the  dominant  idea  in  courtly  love  is  a  fine  one,  on 
a  higher  plane  than  the  sensuality  of  paganism,  and  that 
we  are  indebted  to  the  lyrical  poets  of  the  middle  ages 
for  an  incomparably  noble  expression  of  a  sentiment 
that  is  peculiarly  French — respect  for  woman. 

Regarded  as  music,  one  must  admit  that  while '  the 
author's  personality  is  more  completely  revealed  in  the 
love-songs  than  in  the  simpler  types  previously  discussed, 
there  is  more  of  the  sophisticated,  and  consequently 


84        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

less  of  the  natural  and  spontaneous.  The  melodies  of 
pastorals,  reverdies  or  albas  have  seemed  very  close  to 
our  own  feeling;  such  melody  would  not  appear  out 
of  place  to-day  in  our  stock  of  traditional  folk-song,  were 
any  vestiges  to  be  found  therein.  In  these  love-songs, 
on  the  contrary,  the  sense  of  effort  is  clearly  felt,  leaving 
an  uncomfortable  impression  that  their  melodies  are 
indelibly  marked  with  the  stamp  of  the  century  which 
produced  them,  and  belong  to  a  type  of  civilisation 
quite  obsolete.  The  following  example  will  serve  as  an 
illustration  i1 

Mode're 


-T  \-     I    \- — V^__f3 

De    chan   -    ter    m'est         pris    co       -        ra  -  g-e  —        Pour     la 


(it) 


i  j f  f  i  r  r  i  r  r   i  r  i 


tres_     be     -  le     lo  er,                 Ce    que        n'ai  pas          en    u- 

J"3  J    J^"i»  I  r  J*  J  I  J  "  J'>J     I  I    i   Jt  I     i    I   I  ^  ^ 

-  ^  ^-J  uL>  '  J.  CjJ-   '  *  - 

sa  -  g-e  ;  _  "Mes     a       -  mours      me  _        font    chair    -  -  ter- 


t-u    J  ijj    j        r 

Qui      sou      -     vent    me  _         font      tren     -      bier.  Li      maus 


r  r  r  i  r  [T  r  r  i  ;^J  ''  i  r  i    i  r  F 

d'a-mors  c'est     la ra-gre:         Bien  sai,         sil_    ne — 


JJ 


—  — 

.m'a-so   -         -   a-  g-e          Je    ne         puis    Ion    -     g"ues    du   -       -    rer. 


1  This  song,  by  Richart  de  Semilli,  is  taken  from  MS.  5198,  page 
171,  in  the  Bibliotheque  de  1' Arsenal.  The  text  of  the  poem  has  been 
published  by  Georg  Steffens,-  in  Der  kritische  Text  der  Gedichte  von 
Richart  de  Semilli.  Halle,  1902,  8V0. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       85 

(I  have  taken  courage  to  sing, 

To  praise  the  fairest  lady, 

A  task  to  which  I  am  not  accustomed; 

But  the  same  love  makes  me  sing 

Which  often  makes  me  tremble. 

The  torments  of  love  are  madness: 

I  know  well,  that  if  they  be  not  eased, 

I  cannot  endure  for  long.) 

This  shows  signs  of  conscious  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
composer  of  this  melody,  and  its  due  comprehension  and 
assimilation  require  a  corresponding  effort  on  our  part. 

2.     THE  DEBATS,  OR  JEUX-PARTis.     (Dialogues.) 

This  is  the  carmen  amoebaeum  (discussion-song)  of 
medieval  poetry,  and  is  a  remote  descendant  of  the 
Virgilian  alterna  (see  Virgil,  Eclogues,  3,  59;  amant  al- 
terna  Carmenae).  In  these,  the  dialogue  no  longer 
concerns  itself  with  rural  subjects,  as  in  the  pastoral, 
May-song,  and  their  variants;  but  the  subject  chosen  for 
debate  is  usually  taken  from  philosophy,  morality, 
psychology  or  politics,  curious  themes  for  poetical  treat- 
ment. 

The  middle  ages  recognised  two  forms  of  dialogue- 
song,  the  tenson  and  the  jeu-parti  (or  joc-partit) . 

In  the  tenson  (or  tenso)  the  two  parties  exchange 
opinions  freely  upon  a  given  subject.  It  is  a  conversa- 
tion in  music,  more  or  less  animated,  on  one  of  the 
humanities  or  on  some  definite  topic  of  interest.  An 
example  of  the  former  occurs  where  Jacques  d'Amiens 
complains  of  his  woes  in  love  to  Colin  Muset,  the  latter 
advising  the  love-lorn  swain  in  his  own  light-hearted 
way  to  "follow  his  example  and  devote  his  affection  to 


86        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

capon  and  garlic  sauce,  milk-white  pasties  and  all  the 
good  viands  of  a  cosy  hearth."  Topical  discussions  are 
illustrated  in  the  following  familiar  example:1 

^Modere 


*         Ro-£ 

j   '  J  r  f  =^ 

eft,        ve  -  ez  d 

e    Per     -      ron 

Comme 

u 

•fr-  "*  T  f 

a      le  , 

I  M  j  > 

cuer  fe     -     Ion, 

Qui     a           si     1 

r  i  r  i  »• 

oig-  -  tain  ba  - 

ron 

Veut   sa             fil  -le 

ma  -  ri      -     er, 

Qui    , 

k 

si   cle   •    r 

e    fa             gem              Q 

ue  Ten      si    por    - 

roit  mi   •   rer. 

II 

He,  Diex!  comme  ci  faut  raison! 
Elle  a  dous  vis  a  foison, 
Gente  de  tote  fagon, 
Or  vos  en  vueille  mener. 
Robers  ne  vaut  un  bouton 
S'il  ainsi  Ten  1'aist  aller. 

Ill 

Sire,  vos  doit  on  blasmer, 
S'ainsi  Ten  lessiez  porter 
Ce  que  tant  poez  aimer, 
Et  ou  avez  tel  pooir. 
Nel  devez  laissier  aller 
Por  terre  ne  por  avoir. 


1  This  song  of  the  King  of  Navarre  deals  with  the  marriage  of 
Yolande,  daughter  of  Pierre  Mauclerc,  Count  of  Brittany,  with 
Hugue  de  Lusignan,  son  of  the  Comte  de  la  Marche,  in  1231.  The 
original  melody  here  transcribed  is  that  in  the  Chansonnier  de 
1' Arsenal,  p.  41.  The  most  recent  edition  of  the  text  is  in  K.  Bartsch, 
Chrestomathie  de  Vancienfrangais,  p.  249. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       87 


(Robert,  look  at  Perron, 

What  a  felon's  heart  he  has, 

For  to  a  distant  lord 

He  would  marry  his  daughter, 

Whose  eyes  are  so  bright 

That  one  can  see  oneself  in  them. 

II 

Ah,  God!    What  lack  of  justice! 

She  has  sweetness  in  abundance, 

Every  kind  of  gentleness, 

Yet  now  he  would  take  her  from  you; 

Robert  is  not  worth  a  button 

If  he  thus  lets  her  be  carried  off. 

Ill 

Sire,  one  should  blame  you 
If  you  suffer  them  to  carry  away 
Her  whom  you  can  love  so  much, 
When  you  have  such  power. 
You  should  not  let  her  go 
From  any  land  or  domain.) 

Even  more  than  in  Northern  France,  fine  ex- 
amples of  the  tenso  existed  in  Provence,  as  early  as 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 

The  jeu-parti  (the  parture  of  the  trouveres  and 
the  partimen  of  the  troubadours)  reflects  another  con- 
ception. The  singer  who  opens  the  contest  proposes 
two  conflicting  solutions,  leaving  the  choice  of  one  to 
his  adversary  and  undertaking  the  defence  of  the 
other;  after  the  manner  of  the  sophists.  Of  course, 
the  curious  choice  of  subject  made  one  side  as  plausi- 
ble as  the  other ;  take,  for  example  the  following : 

Which  has  the  greater  power  of  love,  the  woman  whose  cau- 
tiousness prompts  her  to  forbid  her  lover's  appearance  in  the 
lists,  or  the  woman  whose  pride  urges  him  to  distinguish  himself 
there? 


88        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

How  should  one  choose  to  visit  one's  mistress,  in  daylight 
on  foot,  or  on  horseback  at  night  in  a  snowstorm? 

Of  two  lovers,  which  is  the  less  unfortunate,  one  who  is  blind 
or  one  who  is  deaf?  The  blind  one. 

If  your  profession,  like  mine,  entailed  devotional  visits  to 
nuns  and  lay-sisters,  to  which  of  the  two  would  you  prefer  to 
make  love?  Answer:  The  lay-sister. 

Colart,  the  trouvere,  propounds  the  following  to  Mahieu  of 
Ghent:  "Of  three  conditions,  those  of  monk,  husband  and 
bachelor,  which  is  the  most  desirable?"  Common  consent 
chooses  the  last. 

What  should  one  desire;  to  read  his  lady's  heart  like  a  book, 
or  to  have  no  secrets  from  her? 

Gillebert  de  Berneville  asks  his  interlocutor,  Thomas  Herier, 
another  citizen  of  Arras,  if  he  would  willingly  forgo  the  pleasure 
of  eating  peas  in  lard  for  the  sake  of  a  rich  inheritance. 

"Suppose,"  says  Henri  Amion  to  Mahieu  of  Ghent,  "that 
I  am  a  lady's  favoured  lover;  which  would  be  more  unpleasant 
for  me,  to  be  thrashed  in  her  presence  by  my  wife,  on  her  ac- 
count, or  to  see  her  thrashed  by  her  husband  on  mine?" 

Jean  d'Estruen  asks  Colart  le  Changeur  which  of  two  women 
he  should  love,  the  one  that  promises  to  dress  his  hair  or  the 
one  that  promises  to  comb  his  beard? 

"What  is  the  most  precious  virtue  in  a  cavalier?"  asks 
Pierre  Mauclerc  of  Bernard  de  la  Ferte;  "is  it  bravery  or 
generosity?" 

Which  is  preferable;  to  possess  a  mistress  and  be  denied  the 
delights  of  seeing  her  and  speaking  with  her,  or  to  enjoy  per- 
fect freedom  of  sight  and  speech,  without  the  remotest  hope  of 
possession? 

"I  cannot  regain  the  good  graces  of  the  lady  I  love,  unless 
I  beat  her  well;  shall  I  do  so?"  asks  Hue  of  Robert.  Robert 
replies,  "Do  not  hesitate." 

Further  notice  of  these  absurd  problems,  which  sound 
more  like  parodies  than  serious  discussions,  would  be 
a  waste  of  time.  This  form  was  in  its  origin  a  social 
diversion,  a  sort  of  intellectual  tournament,  in  which 
the  spectators  marked  up  the  points  according  to  the 
skill  displayed  in  question  and  repartee.  Certain  texts 
suggest  that  this  amusement  was  known  in  Provence. 
But  it  is  evident  that  the  subjects  available  for  discussion 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       89 

showed  signs  of  exhaustion,  and  that  the  requirements 
of  novelty  drove  authors  to  the  limit  of  oddity,  till 
finally  some  poets,  especially  the  trouveres  of  the 
Artesian  school,  showed  an  ill-disguised  tendency  to 
treat  courtly  love  with  satire  and  derision.  As  M. 
Jeanroy  says,  "The  type  clearly  belongs  to  a  period 
which  no  longer  takes  a  serious  view  of  the  idealistic 
conceptions  that  had  charmed  the  close  of  the  twelfth 
century,  and  presages  the  downfall  of  the  poetry  which 
these  ideals  had  fostered.  It  has,  however,  many  claims 
to  interest;  it  is  strange  to  see  the  spirit  of  dialectic  and 
repartee,  hitherto  confined  to  the  schools,  make  its 
appearance  in  ordinary  society.  Though  one  can  hardly 
treat  these  productions  as  authorities  on  the  procedure 
of  medieval  dialectic,  sophism  and  false  syllogisms  were 
not  uncommon,  and  no  doubt  conformed  to  the  fixed 
rules  of  the  art."  1 

Historians  of  medieval  history  are  equally  confident 
in  their  solution  of  the  equally  puzzling  question  of  the 
music. 

In  his  professor's  lectures  on  medieval  lyrical  poetry, 
given  at  the  College  de  France  in  1904,  M.  Joseph 
Bedier  admits  that  the  skilfully  devised  form  of  the 
dialogues  precludes  the  theory  of  improvisation,  and 
takes  it  for  granted  that  they  were  the  joint  work  of 
two  poets  performing  for  the  benefit  of  a  distinguished 
audience  or  a  gathering  of  their  fellow-poets. 

1  Jeanroy,   Les  Chansons,  in  his  Histoire  de  la  langue  et  de  la 
litterature  fran$ aise,  p.  387. 


90        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

M.  Jeanroy,  too,  in  the  chapter  quoted  above,  comes  to 
an  identical  conclusion:  * 'These  dialogues  appear  to  have 
been  really  the  work  of  two  (or  three,  or  even  four)  poets; 
the  frequent  allusions,  mostly  satirical,  to  the  character, 
calling  and  even  the  physical  qualities  of  the  interlocu- 
tors, as  well  as  the  acrimony  of  some  of  the  disputes, 
render  untenable  the  theory  of  individual  authorship."  1 

So  far,  so  good!  Literary  historians  admit  that  the 
jeu-parti  is  the  work  of  two  poets!  But  what  of  the 
music?  To  which  of  the  joint  authors  is  it  to  be  ascribed? 
Are  we  to  choose  the  trouvere  who  opens  the  debate? 
Or  are  we  to  admit  the  possibility  that  a  musician 
collaborated  with  the  poets? 

The  present  writer  contents  himself  with  putting  these 
questions,  being  unable  to  solve  this  nice  little  problem 
of  medieval  musiciology.  With  the  courage  of  his  opin- 
ions he  ventures  to  conjecture,  pace  scholars  more  learned 
than  himself,  that  these  debates  are  imaginary  from 
start  to  finish,  and  that  the  same  author,  better  versed 
in  sophistry  than  appearances  may  suggest,  champions  un- 
aided the  two  conflicting  opinions.  The  musical  texture 
displays  a  unity  of  form  that  betrays  the  whole  machinery. 

3.       RELIGIOUS  SONGS 

Religious  inspiration  jn  the  lyrical  poetry  of  the 
troubadours  and  trouveres  has  not  produced  such 
perfect  results  as  might  have  been  expected  in  periods  so 
rich  in  faith  as  the  times  of  the  Crusades  and  the  reign 
of  Saint  Louis. 

1  Jeanroy,  ibid.,  p.  386. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY      91 

The  reason  for  this  is  that  any  attempt  to  treat  of 
sacred  matters  in  poetry  written  in  the  vernacular  was 
foredoomed  to  failure.  The  Church  excluded  the  vulgar 
tongue  from  its  Liturgy,  and,  moreover,  contemporary 
society  took  but  a  languid  interest  in  hymns  to  the 
Virgin,  greatly  preferring  dainty  love-songs  and  racy 
pastorals. 

The  sacred  song  struck  a  false  note;  not  that  the 
religious  poetry  of  the  middle  ages  was  devoid  of  real 
beauty — far  from  it,  indeed — but  it  is  to  be  found  only 
in  the  Latin  poetry  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, which  produced  two  great  poets,  Adam  of  Saint- 
Victor  and  Philip  of  Greve. 

Religious  poetry  in  the  vernacular  is  handicapped  from 
the  start;  not  from  lack  of  cultivation,  for  the  number 
of  sacred  poems  is  very  large,  and  though  many  are 
anonymous,  many  are  the  work  of  recognised  trouveres 
and  troubadours,  but  from  a  general  top-heaviness  of 
vexatious  artificiality.  I  have  laid  stress  on  the  need 
for  Christian  ideals  to  inspire  courtly  love  with  its 
noble  and  lofty  qualities.  When  a  trouvere  followed  up 
the  praises  of  his  lady-love  with  a  song  in  honour  of  the 
Virgin,  there  was  no  change  of  key,  so  to  speak;  hence, 
as  between  a  song  of  courtly  love  and  a  sacred  song  there 
is  no  difference  in  charm,  inspiration,  and  even  vocabu- 
lary. At  the  most  it  is  the  Virgin  Mary  substituted  for 
Marote  the  shepherdess,  this  being  practically  the  only 
change  adopted  in  turning  a  pastoral  or  courtly  song 
into  a  hymn. 


92        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

This  simple  method  of  adapting  familiar  secular 
machinery  to  religious  ends  explains  the  frequency  with 
which  Northern  and  Southern  poets  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  wrote  sacred  words  to  secular  tunes 
with  some  success  and  popularity.  This  practice  neces- 
sitated the  adoption  of  an  identical  form  of  rhythm, 
and,  often,  even  of  rhyme.  M.  Paul  Meyer1  remarks 
that  Jacques  of  Cambrai  wrote  several  of  these  adapta- 
tions, which  Wackernagel  somewhat  loosely  terms 
clerical  parodies.  The  anonymous  song  to  the  Virgin, 
"Ay!  amans  fins  et  vrais"  (Ye  brave  and  gallant  lovers), 
is  a  variant  of  a  piece  with  the  same  opening  words  by 
Gautier  d'Epinal.  There  are  many  more  of  these 
structural  imitations.  Gautier  de  Coinci's  "A  che  que 
je  weil  commencier"  (When  I  wish  [veux]  to  begin)  is 
formed  on  Gille  le  Vinier's  "Sire  ki  fait  mieus  a  proisier" 
(Sir,  who  dost  most  praiseworthy  things) ;  Gautier's 
"Amours  dont  sui  espris"  (Love  which  has  enchained 
me)  is  an  imitation  of  a  piece  by  Blondel  de  Nesle 
with  an  identical  opening;  and  his  "Dame  de  valour" 
(Noble  lady)  is  the  rhythmical  counterpart  of  the 
anonymous  composition  "Mere  au  Sauveor."  In  the 
two  articles  quoted  above  will  be  found  a  classified  list 
of  sacred  songs  modelled  on  the  form  and  tune  of  some 
older  ballads. 

Little  more  freshness  is  found  in  the  poetical  content  of 


1  P.  Meyer,  Types  de  quelques  chansons  de  Gautier  de  Coinci, 
in  "Romania,"  Vol.  XVII,  p.  429.  See  also  Jeanroy,  Imitations 
pieuses  de  chansons  profanes,  in  "Romania,"  Vol.  XVIII,  p.  477. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF  LYRICAL  POETRY       93 

these  songs.  A  few  are  charming,  but  the  majority  quite 
commonplace,  the  same  ideas  persistently  recurring. 
The  Christian  dogma  of  the  Virgin-Mother  fires  the 
poets  to  admiration,  but  the  language  used,  though  rich 
in  possibilities,  is  really  very  limited  as  to  vocabulary; 
the  same  metaphors  and  parallels  are  constantly  used, 
borrowed  from  Latin  poetry  (we  meet  them  all  in  Adam 
of  Saint- Victor),  whence  they  were  transferred  to  reli- 
gious poetry  in  the  vulgar  tongue. 

In  connection  with  the  statement  that  some  of  the 
trouveres  composed  sacred  songs,  we  find  examples  in 
the  works  of  Thibaut  de  Champagne,  and  though  such 
pieces  are  mostly  anonymous,  one  of  these  trouveres 
was  most  conspicious  for  his  piety.  He  was  a  genuine 
monk — not  of  the  Rabelaisian  variety,  like  that  monk 
of  Montaudon  who  is  known,  above  all,  as  a  perfect 
troubadour.  I  refer  to  Gautier  de  Coinci.  Born  in 
1177,  Gautier  de  Coinci  entered  the  order  at  an  early 
age,  for  in  1193  he  was  a  monk  in  the  Abbey  of  Saint- 
Medard  at  Soissons.  In  1214  he  was  prior  at  Vic- 
sur-Aisne,  and  in  1233  abbot  in  his  former  abbey  of 
Saint-Medard.  Three  years  later,  in  1236,  he  died. 

Gautier  de  Coinci  was  the  author  of  an  immense 
collection  of  Miracles  de  Notre-Dame,  a  monumental 
example  of  narrative  poetry.  He  is  represented  in  lyrical 
poetry  by  some  thirty  songs,  preserved,  with  their 
melodies,  in  the  manuscript  which  contains  his  Miracles. 
They  can  be  best  judged  here  by  a  quotation  of  this 
charming  specimen: 


94  TROU VERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Mode're 


r     r  '  i  r     '  •  ^  '     *  '     H 

vi    -        .-     e    -  -    le Vi  -  e>    •    ler  •  veut 


un_  biau      son  De la be     -          -    le 

\i 

(!>) 


Qui    seur      tou  -  4es        a trtau"     non;     (          En     cui        Diex     de  - 

v  [^p  J  i  j  j  if*  f- 1  [  f  i  r    r  i  r  frii 

ve    -   nir      horn  Vout    ja     -    dis, —        Dont    chan  -  tent      en 


fc  Cr  fli  j_J ' ''  J  i J  r 


Pa    .    ra    -    dis Ang-Ie  et       ar  -  changre     a  haut        ton . 


II 

Qui  de  s'ame 
Veut  oster  le  fiel  amer, 

Nostre  Dame 
Jor  et  nuit  doit  reclamer. 
Pole  amor  pour  lui  amer 

Jetons  fuer  : 

Qui  ne  I'aime  de  douz  cuer 
Bien  se  puet  chetif  clamer. 


VI 

Porte  du  ciel, 
De  Paradis  planche  et  ponz, 

Sorse  de  miel, 
De  douceur  pecine  et  fonz 
D'enfer  qui  tant  est  parfonz 

Nous  deffent. 
Qui  non  crient  peu  a  de  sens 

Car«n'i  a  rive  ne  fonz. 


THE  VARIOUS  CLASSES  OF. LYRICAL  POETRY       95 

VII 

Douce  dame, 
Par  mult  vraie  entencion 

Cors  et  ame 
Met  en  ta  protection. 
Prie  sanz  dilation 

Ton  fil  douz, 
Qu'il  nous  face  vivre  touz 

In  terra  viventium. 

I 

(My  vielle 
Wishes  to  play  a  good  song 

About  the  noble  Lady 
Renowned  above  all  women; 
In  whom  God  deigned  of  old  time 

To  become  Man, 
Of  whom  Angels  and  Archangels 

Sing  aloud  in  Paradise. 

II 

He  who  would  purge 
Bitter  gall  from  his  soul, 

Must  call 
Upon  Our  Lady  day  and  night. 

Let  us  cast  aside 

Foolish  love,  that  we  may  love  her; 
He  who  does  not  love  her  with  gentle  heart, 
May  well  proclaim  himself  a  caitiff. 


VI 

Gate  of  Heaven, 
Stepping-stone  and  bridge  to  Paradise, 

Fountain  of  honey, 
Lake  and  fount  of  sweetness, 
From  hell  that  is  so  deep 

Defend  us. 

He  who  fears  not  is  devoid  of  grace, 
For  he  has  nor  spring  nor  fount. 

VII 

Sweet  lady, 
In  all  true  loyalty, 
Body  and  soul 
I  entrust  to  thy  protection. 
Pray,  without  ceasing, 

To  thy  dear  Son, 
That  He  may  grant  us  all  to  live 
In  terra  viventium.) 


96  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

With  religious  and  courtly  poetry  must  be  classed 
Crusading  songs,  composed  by  sundry  knights  on  the 
eve  of  their  departure  for  the  Holy  Land,  and  in  the 
Holy  Land  itself,  when  leaving  or  parted  from  their 
Lady-loves  in  their  expedition  against  the  Saracens  to 
regain  the  land  wherein  the  Saviour  shed  His  blood  for 
man's  redemption.  The  theme  of  these  songs  is  some- 
what monotonous;  a  constant  variation  on  the  conflict 
raging  in  the  heart  of  the  lover,  torn  between  the  passion 
he  forsakes  and  the  Christian  task  to  which  his  duty 
calls  him.  An  entire  book  has  been  written  on  these 
songs;1  it  is  therefore  superfluous  to  enlarge  on  them 
further  in  the  present  work. 

1  J.  Bedier  and  P.  Aubry:  Les  Chansons  de  croisade.    Paris,  1908 
3™. 


IV 
TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES 

A  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  musical  history  must  be 
covered  in  this  short  chapter,  yet  these  troubadours  and 
trouveres  by  no  means  represent  the  sum  total  of  the 
musicians  of  the  period. 

Tunes  by  some  forty  troubadours  and  two  hundred 
trouveres  have  been  preserved,  and  anonymous  works, 
not  counting  authors  of  the  twelfth  century  whose  names 
are  lost  to  us;  the  manuscripts  which  have  survived 
contain  two  hundred  and  sixty  troubadour  songs  and 
nearly  two  thousand  trouvere  songs,  with  their  melodies. 

A  certain  number  of  songs  have  come  down  to  us 
without  their  melodies;  the  deficiency  being  considerable 
in  the  case  of  troubadour  songs  for  the  reason  that  the 
trouvere  songs  were  copied  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
ensure  the  preservation  of  words  arid  music  in  one 
manuscript,  if  not  in  an  another,  while  only  two  manu- 
scripts (the  La  Valliere  song-book,  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Nationale  in  Paris,  and  the  manuscript  in  the  Ambrosian 
Library  in  Milan)  were  devoted  to  the  melodies  of  the 
troubadours. 

The  troubadours  were  the  pioneers;  the  earliest  known 
troubadour,  GUILHEM  IX,  Seventh  Count  of  Poitiers 
and  Ninth  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  wrote  from  1087  to  1127, 


98        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

that  is,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century; 
CERCALMON  (Cercamon)  was  cotemporary  with  the 
death  of  Louis  VI;  MARCABRU  (Marcabrun)  attended  the 
court  of  the  Count  of  Poitiers,  Guilhem  VIII,  the  father 
of  Eleanora. 

These  three  are  the  earliest  known  lyrical  poets  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Of  Guilhem  IX's  work,  one  song  only, 
words  and  music,  is  extant :  none  of  Cercalmon's  melodies 
have  survived.  To  balance  this,  Marcabru  has  left  us 
four  pieces,  with  their  musical  notation.  From  an 
examination  of  the  historical  allusions  in  his  poems,  made 
by  MM.  Jeanroy,  Dejeanne  and  myself,  it  appears  that 
Marcabru's  activities  ceased  in  1147,  since  no  reference 
is  made  to  events  of  a  later  date. 

FIRST    PERIOD    OF    LYRICAL    ACTIVITY 

If  we  follow  certain  historians  of  literature  and  agree 
that  the  first  period  lasted  from  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  till  about  1190,  we  must  make  additions  to  the 
names  of  Guilhem  IX  and  Marcabru,  putting  in  the 
first  rank  the  author  of  some  melodies  which  have 
reached  us,  JAUFRE  RUDEL,  the  gloomy  legendary  hero, 
love-sick  for  a  distant  princess  whom  he  has  never  seen— 
the  princess  of  Tripoli.  BERENGUIERDEPALAZOLIS,  as 
we  know,  the  author  of  eight  songs,  and,  as  his  biographer 
tells  us,  trobet  bonas  cansons1  (composed  good  songs). 
BERNART  DE  VENTADORN  we  already  know.  He  was 

1  Biographies  des  Troubadours,  p.  96. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        99 

of  low  extraction  and  humble  birth:  his  mother  tended1 
the  bake-oven  at  the  castle  where  she  worked,  but  bels 
horn  era  et  adregz  saup  ben  cantar  e  trobar  et  era  cortes 
et  ensenhatz2  (he  was  a  fine,  clever  man  and  knew  well 
how  to  sing  and  compose  and  was  courtly  and  learned). 
Nineteen  of  his  songs  have  survived,  one  of  them  the 
well-known  "Quart  vei  la  lauzeta  mover"  ("When  I  see 
the  lark  a-flutter"). 

RAMBAUT  OF  ORANGE  (Rambaut  d'Aurenga)  (fl.  1150- 
1173),  was  a  clever  troubadour,  an  adept  in  'rimes 
cheres'  (difficult  rhymes).  He  fell  in  love  with  several 
women,  amongst  them  being  the  Contesse  d'Urgel, 
whom  he  never  saw,  and  who  never  saw  him.  One  only 
of  his  melodies  has  come  down  to  us. 

BERTRAN  DE  BORN,  quite  apart  from  his  considerable 
contribution  to  musical  history,  was,  as  the  most 
turbulent  of  troubadours,  sufficiently  conspicuous  in  the 
chronicles  of  his  time  to  arrest  our  attention  for  a 
moment.  In  love-affairs  he  found  relaxation  from 
political  intrigue,  his  affections  being  equally  divided 
between  his  passion  for  fighting  and  his  predilection 
for  women.  He  was  smitten  by  a  daughter  of  the 
Vicomte  de  Turenne,  Mathilde,  who  had  married  the 
lord  of  Montagnac,  Guillaume  Talleyrand:  then,  having 
lauded  her  fa,ir  tresses  shot  with  rubies,  and  her  white 
skin,  white  as  the  hawthorn  blossom,  he  forsook  her  for 
a  second  Matilda,  his  grace  of  Saxe's  duchess,  still  more 

1  Biographies  des  Troubadours,  p.  10. 

2  Some  accounts  make  his  father  an  oven-tender. 


100        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

beautiful,  and  still  more  lovable  than  his  first  flame. 
In  between  whiles,  many  other  ladies,  such  as  Guicharde 
de  Comborn,  or  Tibour  de  Montausier,  engaged  his 
amorous  proclivities.  But  his  most  serious  undertaking 
was  to  set  the  sons  of  the  second  Henry  Plantagenet 
at  loggerheads;  the  elder,  Henry  the  younger,  had  been 
trained  by  his  father  in  kingly  duties.  Bertran  de  Born, 
bearing  a  grudge  against  Richard,  took  Henry's  part 
in  the  quarrel  between  the  two  brothers;  but  in  1183, 
when  Henry  died,  Bertran  de  Born  at  first  mourned 
honestly  and  eloquently  for  the  young  king,  whose 
disappearance  threatened  to  extinguish  his  prospects. 
But  when  Richard  had  seized  the  castle  of  Autafort,  the 
troubadour's  property  on  the  borders  of  Perigord  and 
Limousin,  Bertran  tried  to  ingratiate  himself  with  his 
conqueror,  thinking  this  the  best  way  to  regain  his  own. 
He  succeeded,  and  in  his  later  years  the  devil  turned 
hermit  and  retired  to  the  Cistercian  Abbey  of  Dalon, 
near  the  same  Autafort  which  had  been  the  scene  of  his 
romantic  career. 

I  have  named  those  troubadours  only  whose  works 
have  survived  in  whole  or  in  part,  yet  how  many  others 
are  known  to  us  as  both  musicians  and  poets  in  their 
own  day,  but  as  poets  only  in  ours ! 

Southern  France,  therefore,  then  possessed  lyrical 
poetry  in  a  fairly  well  developed  stage  when  the  earliest 
trouveres  first  made  music  to  the  north  of  the  Loire.  At- 
tempts have  been  made  to  trace  the  paths  by  which  the 
poetry  of  the  troubadours  travelled  with  its  gift  of 


TROUBADOURS  A^D  TROUvER^o        •;  i  -101 


form  and  inspiration  to  the  Northern  trouveres,  in  the 
second  half  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  has  been  surmised 
that  the  point  of  contact  between  the  two  schools  is  to 
be  found  in  the  neutral  zone  formed  by  Limousin,  la 
Marche  and  Poitou;  also  that  the  Crusade  of  1147,  bring- 
ing men  of  the  North  and  South  together  for  many 
months,  must  have  facilitated  this  interchange  of  ideas.  .. 
Stress  has  been  laid  on  the  prominent  part  played  in 
literary  history  by  the  two  daughters  of  Eleanor_pf 
Aquitaine,  Marie  and  Aelis,  who,  married  to  Henry  I 
of  Champagne  and  Thibaut  of  Blois,  respectively,  must 
have  inspired  their  surroundings  with  a  taste  for  courtly 
poesy,  and  honoured  trouveres  with  their  patronage. 
Further,  frequent  traces  have  been  found  of  troubadours 
in  Northern  castles  and  of  trouveres  in  Southern.  Thus, 
Bernart  de  Ventadorn  resided  in  Normandy  at  the 
court  of  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine  in  1152,  and  Richard  de 
Barbezieux  at  the  court  of  Champagne,  with  Marie, 
then  widow  of  Henry  I.  Guiraut  de  Calanson  and 
Bertran  de  Born  had  personal  relations  with  Geoffrey  of 
Brittany,  the  patron  of  Gace  Brule.  A  northern  poet, 
Hugue  de  Berze,  dedicates  one  of  his  compositions  to 
Folquet  de  Romans  (Folquet  of  Rotman).  We  find 
several  examples  of  the  jeu-parti  with  northern  and 
southern  poets  as  the  contesting  parties. 

But  these  are  merely  isolated  instances.  It  seems  to  us 
to  be  more  in  accordance  with  the  historical  realities  to 
conjecture  that  the  same  causes  which  gave  rise  to  the 
Provencal  poetry  in  the  south  could,  generally  speaking, 


10-2  TROUVtRES  A>ND  TROUBADOURS 


act  upon  the  north,  for  the  poetry  of  the  trouveres,  though 
it  bears  traces  of  having  borrowed  from  the  south,  has 
certain  qualities  and  characteristics  entirely  its  own. 
Finally,  if  the  influence  of  the  south  upon  the  north 
requires  elucidation,  we  have  only  to  point  to  the  work 
of  the  jongleurs.  The  jongleurs,  wanderers  before  all 
things,  moved  constantly  from  one  court  to  another, 
with  the  latest  songs  as  well  as  news.  They  were 
welcomed  in  the  castles  of  1'lle  de  France,  Champagne 
and  Picardy,  by  listeners  eager  for  news  of  happenings 
on  the  banks  of  the  Garonne  and  Rhone.  In  the  days 
before  newspapers  the  jongleurs  were  the  special  corre- 
spondents, and  it  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
\  .the  jongleurs  were  one  of  the  earliest  factors  in  bringing 
i  North  and  South  together  and  promoting  the  social 
unity  of  France. 

But  these  reflections  are  too  serious  for  the  lightness 
of  the  subject  in  hand,  and  having  claimed  for  the 
trouveres  a  certain  measure  of  independence  in  their 
inspiration,  lets  us  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  most  promi- 
nent among  them. 

As  with  the  troubadours,  a  first  period  of  activity  may 
be  noted  among  the  trouveres,  prior  to  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century.  They  are  nearly  all  poets  born  in  the 
northern  or  eastern  provinces  of  France.  Among  them 
are  many  historically  important  figures  in  literature 
and  music.1 

1  There  is  a  fairly  critical  edition  of  the  poetical  text  of  the 
earliest  trouveres:  Brakelmann's  Les  plus  anciens  chansonniers 
fran$ais,  Paris,  1891-1896  (2  vols.,  8V0.) 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVfiRES  103 

CHRETIEN  DE  TROYES  and  GAUTIER  D'^PINAL  are 
perhaps  the  two  earliest  known  trouveres.  Of  the  former's 
work  little  survives;  about  twenty  specimens  of  the 
latter's  work  have  come  down  to  us.  Both  were  known  and 
patronized  by  the  Count  of  Flanders,  Philip  of  Alsace, 
who  inherited  the  province  in  1168  and  died  in  1191. 

Mention  should  here  be  made  of  the  CHATELAIN  DE 
COUCY  and  BLONDEL  DE  NESLE,  the  latter  famous  in 
legend  from  the  Middle  Ages  onwards,  and  honoured,  even 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  in  Sedaine's  Richart  Coeur  de 
Lion;  M.  Leo  Wiese's  recent  book  has  laid  the  ghost.1 

The  distinguished  personality  of  CONON  DE  BETHUNE 
requires  fuller  consideration.  This  trouvere  has  had  the 
good  fortune  to  be  excellently  treated  by  M.  Axel  Wallen- 
skoeld,  and  is,  consequently,  familiar  to  us.2 

The  precise  date  of  Conon  de  Bethune's  birth  cannot 
be  stated  :  born  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century, 
he  was  the  fifth  child  of  Robert  V  de  Bethune  and  his 
wife,  Adelide  de  Saint-Pol.  He  was  already  a  poet  of 
repute  \^hen  called  upon  to  join  the  third  Crusade.  His 
contemporaries,  among  them  his  kinsman  and  fellow- 
poet  Huon  d'Oisi,  reproached  him  for  his  premature 
return  in  1191.  In  February,  1200,  he  championed  the 
Cross  for  the  second  time  and  was  entrusted  with  the 
arrangements  for  the  transportation  of  the  Crusaders 
to  Palestine.  He  appears  to  have  taken  a  prominent 


1  Leo  Wiese,  Die  Lieder  des  Blondel  de  Nesle.    Dresden,  1904,  4to. 

2  Axel  Wallenskoeld,  Chansons  de  Conon  de  Bethune.     Helsing- 
fors,  1891. 


104       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

part  in  this  enterprise,  and  when  the  fleet  reached  Corfu 
in  1203,  he  was  among  those  who  voted  for  an  expedition 
to  Constantinople  in  support  of  the  young  Alexis,  pre- 
tender to  the  throne  of  the  Grecian  empire. 

At  various  stages  of  the  expedition,  when  the  old 
Emperor  Alexis  ordered  the  Crusaders  to  leave  his 
dominions,  when  it  was  proposed  to  call  upon  the  young 
Emperor  Alexis  to  respect  his  promises,  and  when  Comte 
de  Blandrate,  Governor  of  Thessalonica,  came  into  con- 
flict with  the  Emperor  Henry,  1207,  it  is  Conon  de 
Bethune  that  we  find  employed  as  intermediary,  his 
tact  and  eloquence  singling  him  out  as  the  Crusaders' 
mouthpiece.  The  Villehardouin  chronicle  gives  us  further 
details  of  his  life,  which  will  be  found  in  the  excellent 
biography  in  the  edition  of  his  poems.  Conon  de  Bethune 
probably  died  between  1219  and  1221.  The  politician, 
statesman  and  soldier  in  the  man  quite  overshadowed 
the  poet;  but  it  is  the  poet  that  concerns  us  now.  Ten 
compositions  have  been  tentatively  attributed  to  Conon 
de  Bethune.  The  two  most  interesting  (and  most 
probably  authentic)  are  two  ballads  of  the  Crusade, 
written  on  the  eve  of  departure  for  the  Holy  Land. 

I  have  dwelt  somewhat  at  length  on  Conon  de  Bethune, 
because  this  trouvere  presents  a  characteristic  and  com- 
plete type;  he  is  not  a  poetaster,  dependent  upon  oppor- 
tunity for  his  verses:  poetry  is  but  one  manifestation  of 
Conon's  intellectual  activities,  and  he  is  equally  suc- 
cessful, whether  he  sets  his  delightful  verses  to  charming 
music,  or  counsels  the  Crusaders  in  felicitous  language. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVfcRES  105 

On  the  authority  of  the  Grandes  Chroniques  de  France 
it  was  long  believed  that  the  trouvere  GACE  BRULE  was 
contemporary  with  Thibaut  of  Champagne,  and  that 
these  two  collaborated  in  the  songs  which  bear  the  King 
of  Navarre's  name  only  in  the  copies  made  at  Provins 
and  Troyes.  This  conjecture  placed  Gace  Brule  some 
time  before  the  thirteenth  century,  but  Paulin  Paris,  in 
the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,1  and,  more  recently, 
M.  Gedeon  Huet,  in  his  critical  edition  of  the  poems 
published  in  the  Societe  des  anciens  textes  frangais,2  have 
given  a  totally  different  explanation  of  the  passage  in 
the  Grandes  Chroniques.  Moreover,  M.  Huet  has  shown 
that  the  Roman  de  la  Violette  and  The  Romaunt  of  the 
Rose  or  Guillaume  de  Dole  quote  these  two  poems  by 
Gace  Brule.  Now,  we  know  that  Guillaume  de  Dole 
cannot  be  later  than  the  twelfth  century,  and  seeing  that 
Gace  is  spoken  of  as  a  ballad-writer  whose  verses  are 
quite  familiar,  it  follows  that  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  poetical  activities  must  be  placed  before  1200, 
especially  as  Gace  is  spoken  of  as  "mon  segnor"  in 
both  quotations,  adds  M.  Huet.  So  the  trouvere  was 
a  knight  as  well,  from  which  it  may  be  inferred  that  in 
1200  he  was  no  longer  a  young  man.  Finally,  by  es- 
tablishing the  identity  of  personages  named  by  the 
poet  in  the  closing  lines  of  his  songs,  this  scholar  adduces 
fresh  grounds  for  supposing  that  he  must  have  lived 
in  the  twelfth  rather  than  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

lVol.  XXIII,  p.  564  etseq. 

2  G.  Huet,  Les  Chansons  de  Gace  Brule.    Paris,  1902,  8V0. 


106       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Gace  belongs  to  the  prolific  line  of  Champagne 
writers:  his  output  was  considerable. 

We  shall  couple  with  Gace  Brule  a  trouvere  who  was 
in  close  touch  with  him,  GAUTIER  DE  DARGIES,  who 
went  so  far  as  to  speak  of  Gace  as  his  "compain"  (part- 
ner). His  songs,  though  as  many  as  thirty  have  survived, 
give  us  no  clue  as  to  his  life  or  the  date  of  his  death; 
one  just  mentions  that  he  left  his  lady-love  to  go  crusad- 
ing, and  another  informs  us  of  his  return  to  France.  At 
any  rate,  Gautier  de  Dargies  was  a  Picardian,  and 
undoubtedly  flourished,  like  his  "compain"  Gace  Brule, 
at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 

Another  trouvere  of  Northern  France,  HUON  D'Oisi, 
a  kinsman  of  Conon  de  Bethune,  had  also  been  his 
master  in  poetry.  Conon  had  twitted  him  with  his 
abstention  from  the  crusade  preached  against  Saladin 
in  1187;  but  the  Lord  of  Cambrai  had  his  revenge  when 
Conon  returned  prematurely  at  the  heels  of  Philip 
Augustus  in  1189,  and  the  spiteful  energy  of  the  old 
trouvere  inspired  the  violent  diatribe  that  has  come 
down  to  us.1 

Maugre  tous  sainz  et  maugre  Dieu  ausi 
Revient  Quesnes,  et  mal  soit  il  vegnans  ! 


Honiz  soit  il  et  ses  preechemans, 
Et  houniz  soit  ki  de  lui  ne  dit :  "Fi  ! " 
Quant  Dex  verra  que  ses  besoinz  ert  granz, 
II  li  faudra,  car  il  li  a  failli. 

1  Bedier  and  Aubry,  Les  Chansons  de  Croisade,  p.  62. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUV^RES  107 

(In  spite  of  all  the  Saints,  in  spite  of  God  Himself, 
Conon  returns,  and  a  curse  be  on  his  coming! 

Evil  to  him  and  all  his  preachings, 

And  evil  to  him  who  does  not  cry  him,  "Fie!" 

When  God  sees  how  great  are  his  needs, 

He  will  forsake  him,  for  he  [Conon]  has  forsaken  Him.) 

These  constitute  the  prominent  poets  of  the  first 
period.  The  troubadours  and  trouveres  of  the  first 
thirty  years  of  the  thirteenth  century,  that  is,  those  who 
write  circa  1195-1230,  appear  to  form  a  second  division. 
M.  Jeanroy  accepts  this  classification  and  we  may  follow 
his  example. 

SECOND    PERIOD 

What  are  the  names  of  the  troubadours  whom  we  meet 
in  the  course  of  this  second  period? 

We  are  told  that  ARNATJT  DE  MAROILL  (Arnold  of 
Marvoil,  or  Mareuil)  was  a  clerk  of  humble  origin.  Like 
all  troubadours,  he  placed  his  heart  and  his  muse  at 
the  disposal  of  a  lady  whom  he  loved,  the  Comtesse 
de  Burlats,  daughter  of  Raymond  V  of  Toulouse  and 
wife  of  the  Vicomte  de  Beziers.  But  shyness  prevented 
him  from  disclosing  his  love  to  his  lady,  or  letting  her 
know  that  the  songs  she  received  were  his  composition; 
and  yet  he  had  a  formidable  rival  in  the  King  of  Aragon, 
Alphonse  II,  who  was  less  generously  disposed;  the 
latter  procured  the  unlucky  poet's  dismissal  from  the 
society  of  the  Comtesse  de  Burlats.  Arnaut  de  Maroill 
flourished  1170-1200. 

FOLQUET  OF  MARSEILLES,  as  all  self-respecting  trou- 
badours should,  had  his  poetical  career  speckled  with 


108       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

numerous  amours.  His  biographer  good-naturedly 
enumerates  them  for  us.  It  was  a  sad  day  for  the  poet 
when  one  of  the  ladies  who  lent  a  most  favourable  ear 
to  his  ardent  avowals,  the  wife  of  William  VIII  of 
Montpellier,  daughter  of  the  Emperor  of  Byzantium, 
Manuel  Comnenus,  was  repudiated  and  sent  back  to 
her  father  by  an  impatient  husband,  who  had  good  cause 
for  complaint,  we  are  told.  Apparently,  Folquet  took 
exception  to  the  husband's  point  of  view,  and  having 
seen  his  patrons,  the  Viscount  of  Marseilles  •  and  the 
Count  of  Toulouse,  Raymond  V,  die  one  after  the  other, 
soon  renounced  the  world  in  disgust  and  took  orders. 
He  closed  his  life  as  Bishop  of  Toulouse,  a  surprising 
conclusion  to  a  stormy  career.  His  active  life  as  a 
poet  is  placed  between  1180  and  1195;  be  that  as  it  may, 
we  know  that  he  died  in  1231.  He  had  long  given  up 
writing,  and  his  contemporaries  took  a  malicious  delight 
in  getting  jongleurs  to  sing  in  his  presence  the  very  songs 
which  he  had  composed  in  former  years;  on  these  days, 
the  poor  bishop,  now  all  contrition,  mortified  his  flesh 
with  bread  and  water. 

^r~  PEIRE  VIDAL  was  an  ingenuous  enthusiast,  who  fell 
in  love  with  every  woman  he  met  during  an  existence 
which  is  one  long  series  of  romantic  adventures.  His 
chief  claim  to  interest  lies  in  our  knowledge  that  his 
contemporaries  thought  highly  of  his  musical  gifts:  e 
cantava  mielhs  d'ome  del  won,  e  fo  bos  trobaire  (he  sang 
better  than  any  one  else  in  the  world  and  was  a  great 
troubadour). 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVfiRES  109 

The  MONK  OF'  MONTAUDON  (Montaldon)  appears  to 
have  been  a  Rabelaisian  sort  of  individual,  permanently 
enshrined  in  a  jolly  Abbey  at  Thelema.  His  poetical 
gifts  and  the  uses  to  which  he  put  them  brought  a  shower 
of  presents  from  noble  lords  who  invited  him  to  their 
houses  for  their  entertainment  and  advancement.  But, 
as  a  self-denying  monk  sworn  to  poverty,  he  kept  none 
of  these  riches  for  himself  and  handed  them  all  over  to 
his  priory.  It  is  supposed  that  the  Monk  of  Montaudon, 
of  whose  works  but  two  survive  with  their  melodies, 
wrote  between  1180  and  1200. 

GAUCELM  FAIDIT'S  biographer  gives  the  following 
description  of  him: 

Fils  fo  d'un  borzes  e  chantava  pieitz  d'ome  del  mon. 
E  fetz  mot  bos  sos  e  bonas  chansos.  E  fetz  se  joglar  per 
ochaison  quel  perdet  tot  son  aver  a  joe  de  datz.  Horn 
fo  lares  et  mot  glotz  de  manjar  e  de  beure  :  per  que  en- 
devenc  gros  otra  mesura. 

w*r*j 

(The  son  of  a  burgher,  Gaucelm  Faidit  excelled  a]I  klf 
contemporaries  in  singing.  He  composed  many  good 
tunes  and  ballads;  he  turned  jongleur  because  he  had 
lost  all  his  property  at  dice.  His  love  of  good  living 
made  him  enormously  fat.)  The  biographer  adds  that 
he  married  a  woman  of  no  character,  a  soudadeira 
(wanton),  Guilhelma  Monjo;  once  beautiful  and  clever, 
she  eventually  become  as  gross  and  vulgar  as  her  husband. 
Historians  of  Provengal  literature  give  1180-1216  as  the 
extreme  dates  of  his  compositions.  Gaucelm  Faidit's 


110  TROU VERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

output  must  have  been  considerable,  but  fourteen  only 
of  his  songs,  with  their  melodies,  have  come  down  to  us. 

GUIRAUT  DE  BORNEIL  (or  Bornelh)  was,  in  the  words 
of  his  contemporaries,  maestre  dels  trobadors,  a  master 
among  troubadours.  His  writings  may  be  dated  between 
1175-1220.  We  are  already  acquainted  with  him  through 
his  admirable  dawn-song  or  alba,  a  composition  so 
delightful  as  to  compel  our  acquiescence  in  the  judgment 
of  his  fellows.  He  belongs  to  the  line  of  Limousin 
troubadours,  and  was  born  in  the  Excideuil  district, 
not  far  from  Perigueux.  He  so  arranged  his  mode  of 
life  que  tot  Vivern  estava  a  scola  et  aprendia  e  tota  la  estat 
anava  per  cortz  e  menava  ab  se  dos  cantadors  que  cantavan 
las  soas  cansos  (that  he  spent  all  the  winter  studying  at 
the  schools  and  the  summer  in  travelling  from  court  to 
court  with  two  singers  who  performed  his  compositions). 
In  these  few  lines  we  have  a  faithful  and  picturesque 
description  of  a  troubadour's  life:  during  the  winter  he 
would  attend  schools  of  minstrelsy,  where  he  could  perfect 
himself  in  the  rules  of  his  art  and  the  science  of  music; 
in  summertime  he  went  from  castle  to  castle,  taking 
with  him  jongleurs  to  sing  his  songs.  Alphonse  VIII, 
King  of  Castile,  was  his  patron  and  loaded  him  with 
\  presents. 

RAMBAUT  DE  VAQUEIRAS,  on  the  other  hand,  belongs 
to  the  Provencal  and  Viennese  school  of  poetry,  like 
Rambaut  of  Orange,  Pistoleta,  Blacatz,  Folquet  of 
Rotman,  and  Folquet  of  Marseilles.  He  was  still 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        111 

writing  in  1207.    He  is  known  to  us  through  the  estampida 
quoted  above  (see  page  43). 

GUI  D'USSEL  (Guy  of  Uisel)  brings  us  again  to  Li- 
mousin; he  was  contemporary  with  Gaucelm  Faidit  and 
the  famous  Marie  de  Ventadour,  a  very  clever  poetess 
and  closely  associated  with  many  troubadours.  Guy 
belonged  to  the  seigniorial  family  of  Ussel;  he  had  two 
brothers,  Ebles  and  Elie,  poets  and  troubadours  like 
himself,  and  a  third,  Peire,  who  undertook  the  perform- 
ance of  his  brothers'  works.  Guy  was  also  Canon  of 
Brioude  and  Montferrant,  which  did  not  deter  him  from 
numerous  adventures  of  gallantry,  so  startling  that  even 
the  Papal  Legate  was  perturbed  thereby  and  prevailed 
upon  him  to  give  up  his  rhymes  and  ballads. 

Twenty-two  compositions,  words  and  music,  of  the 
troubadour  RAIMON  DE  MIRAVAL  (Raymond  of  Miraval) 
(fl.  1190-1220)  have  survived.  He  was  attached  to  the 
household  of  Raymond  VI  of  Toulouse,  who  kept  him 
in  horses,  arms  and  clothes,  the  usual  remuneration  of 
poets  in  the  thirteenth  century;  later  he  became  the 
boon-companion  of  Peter  II,  King  of  Aragon. 

PEIRE  CARDINAL,  as  his  biographer  says,  apres  letras  e 
saup  ben  lezer  e  chanter  (studied  letters  and  was  a  good 
reader  and  singer).  Like  so  many  others,  he  went  from 
court  to  court,  royal  or  baronial,  with  a  jongleur  to  sing 
his  ballads  for  him.  He  was  specially  favoured  by 
James,  King  of  Aragon,  and  lived  to  nearly  a  hundred. 
His  poems  were  composed  between  1210  and  1230. 


112  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Only  troubadours  whose  musical  compositions  have 
survived  are  included  in  this  brief  biographical  survey. 
These  are  the  minority :  but  to  compensate  for  this,  there 
are  a  fair  number  of  trouveres  of  this  period  (1190-1230) 
of  whom  particulars  are  available. 

As  a  rule,  when  a  poet  has  no  other  claim  to  historical 
distinction,  our  biographical  information  is  very  meagre. 
In  the  case  of  the  troubadours  we  have  material  in 
abundance,  but  in  no  sense  critical,  merely  reflecting  the 
frame  of  mind  in  which  their  poems  were  approached 
in  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth  century.  It  is 
rather  by  a  few  scattered  suggestions  in  the  opening  or 
closing  lines  of  the  poems,  and  by  the  identification  of 
names  quoted  here  and  there,  that  historians  have 
succeeded  in  assigning  approximate  dates  to  the  authors. 

The  earliest  trouveres,  previously  discussed,  received 
the  most  attention  and  are  best  known  in  our  time. 
However,  for  a  study  of  certain  trouveres  now  under 
consideration  there  is  a  document,  not  so  picturesque, 
indeed,  as  the  biographies  of  the  troubadours,  but  in- 
finitely more  reliable;  this  is  a  collection  of  official 

records,  the  Registre  de  la  Confrerie  des  Jongleurs  et  des 

t 
Bourgeois  d*  Arras.1     M.  Geusnon  has  proved  that  this 

is  not,  as  might  be  expected,  a  record  of  admissions 
into  the  order,  but  a  register  of  deaths,  and  that  the 
dates  mentioned  refer  to  the  decease  of  each  member. 

1  The  original  is  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  French  manu- 
script 8541. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        113 

Unfortunately  it  gives  particulars  only  of  the  trouveres 
of  Arras,  who,  though  numerous,  did  not  comprise  all. 
In  connection  with  this  second  generation  of  trouveres, 
the  diffusion  of  a  taste  for  poetry  throughout  the  whole 
domain  of  the  langue  (Toil  is  a  remarkable  feature. 
Formerly,  trouveres  were  met  with  in  the  North  and 
East  of  France  only,  but  now  we  find  them  in  provinces 
where,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  they  had  been  un- 
known, Normandy,  Maine  and  Anjou;  a  few  names  are 
given  here. 

COLIN  MUSET  is  one  of  the  most  charming  poets  of 
this  period,  though  his  origin  is  very  humble.  Socially 
he  would  be  classed  with  the  jongleurs,  but  he  is  a 
jongleur  who  writes  and  composes,  and  thus  rises  to 
the  distinction  of  a  genuine  trouvere.  We  know  little 
or  nothing  of  his  life,  and  only  his  allusions  to  "mon  bon 
seignor  de  Waignonrut,"  "la  bone  duchesse,"  and  "le 
bon  comte  de  Widemont,"  enable  us  to  place  him  in  the 
first  thirty  years  of  the  thirteenth  century;  but  we  can 
picture  to  ourselves  a  trouvere  who  often  went  hungry 
but  had  the  one  constant  desire  of  the  Bohemian,  the 
inborn  longing  for  the  epicure's  existence,  the  yearning 
for  succulent  dishes  on  a  groaning  table. 

Quand  je  voi  iver  retorner, 
Lors  me  voudroie  sejorner 
Se  je  pooie  oste  trover 
Large,  qui  ne  vousist  center, 
Qu'eiist  pore  et  buef  et  mouton, 
Maslarz,  faisans  et  chapons 


114 


TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 


Et  bons  fromages  en  glaon. 
Et  la  dame  fust  autressi 
Cortoise  come  li  mariz, 
Et  touz  jors  feist  mon  plesir... 

(When  I  see  winter  returning, 
Then  I  should  like  to  stop 
Where  I  could  find  a  generous  host 
Who  would  not  count  up  my  score 
Of  beef,  pork  and  mutton, 
Mallards,  pheasants  and  capons 
And  fine  cheeses. 
And  where  mine  hostess  also 
Was  as  civil  as  her  husband, 
And  always  did  my  pleasure.) 


These  anonymous  lines 1  might  have  been  written  by 
Colin  Muset,  for  they  picture  his  thoughts  vividly.  But 
the  following  is  his  work,  and  well  worth  preserving:2 


Anime 


r   r  i 


£ 


P3 


De  -  van! 


Si    -  re         cuens,    j'ai         vi 


ru   r 


vostre    os    -    lei. 


Si       ne         ma  -  vez       riens     do 


T    J  ' '   J  i "  -r  i  -r  '  ^^ 

Ne      mes       g&  -  gres        a  -  qui    .    te:     C'est      vi  -  la 


^=^  '  i  r  T  ' "  J  i "  r  ' 

ni  -  el        Foi     que        doi      sain   -   te         Ma    -     ri    -   •,          En  -  si 


^eanroy,  Origines,  p.  505. 

2  This  song  by  Colin  Muset  is  from  the  Arsenal  MS.,  p.  236. 
See  M.  Bedier's  critical  edition  De  Nicolao  Museto  (Paris,  1893,  8VO), 
p.  130. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        115 


„      r  '  r  f 

ne     vos        sie 

;  -    j  i  - 

-  vre        mi    -    e:        M'au  -mos  -  niere 

l_f  f  —  1 

est        mal     g-ar  - 

8>  r     J   '  r 

ni     .     e            E 

t       ma         bour  -  se           mal_     far 

.      si     -    e. 

IV 

Quant  je  vieng  a  mon  ostel 
Et  ma  fame  a  regarde 
Derrier  moi  le  sac  enfle, 
Et  je,  qui  sui  bien  pare 

De  robe  grise, 

Sachies  qu'ele  a  tost  jus  mise 
La  quenoille  sans  faintise  : 
Ele  me  rit  par  franchise, 
Ses  deus  bras  au  col  me  pile. 

V 

Ma  fame  va  destrosser 
Ma  male  sans  demorer  ; 
Mes  gardens  va  abuvrer 
Mon  cheval  et  conreer  ; 
Ma  pucele  va  tuer 
Deus  chapons  por  deporter 

A  la  janse  aillie. 
Ma  fille  m'aporte  un  pigne 
En  sa  main  par  cortoisie. 
Lors  sui  de  mon  ostel  sire 
Plus  que  nuls  ne  porroit  dire. 


(Sir  Count,  I  have  played 

Before  you  in  your  lodging, 
Yet  you  have  given  me  nothing 

Nor  paid  my  wages, 

This  is  villainy! 

By  Holy  Mary, 
I  will  never  serve  you  more; 

My  pack  is  ill-furnished 
And  my  purse  but  poorly  filled. 


116       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

IV 

When  I  come  to  my  lodging, 

And  my  wife  sees  me 
With  well  stuffed  knapsack  on  my  back, 
And  I  am  finely  attired 

In  cloak  of  grey, 
You  must  know  she  lays  aside 
Her  distaff  without  complaining; 

She  laughs  at  me  merrily 
And  clasps  her  two  arms  about  my  neck. 

V 

My  wife  unpacks 

My  box  without  delay, 

My  lads  water 
And  groom  my  horse; 
My  girls  runs  to  kill 
Two  capons  for  our  cheer, 

With  garlic  sauce. 
My  daughter  brings  me  a  comb 
In  her  hand  with  courtesy, 
Then  am  I  lord  of  my  lodging 
More  than  men  can  say.) 

AUDEFROI  LE  BATARD  brings  us  to  the  poet-minstrels 
of  Arras.  This  strange  school  is  recruited  no  longer 
from  the  aristocracy  of  feudalism  which  had  fostered 
the  lyrical  muse  till  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  but  from  the  citizen  class,  and  introduces  fresh 
-ideas,  in  which  speculation  is  less  recondite  and  the 
common  sense  of  the  Northern  industrial  cities  begins  to 
make  itself  apparent.  Occasionally  it  is  only  the  poetry 
in  its  methods  that  saves  the  songs  from  coarseness, 
but  they  are  inspired,  like  the  paintings  of  the  Flemish 
masters  in  later  times,  by  the  exuberance  of  energy,  the 
joie  de  vivre  and  the  conception  of  life  that  derives  its 
pleasures  from  material  realities. 

M.    Guesnon1   has   succeeded   in  reconstructing   the 

1  Bulletin  historique  et  philologique  du  comiti  des   Travaux  his- 
toriques,  1894. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        117 

historical  setting  of  some  of  the  earliest  poets  of  Arras, 
PIERRE  DE  CORBIE,  ADAM  DE  GIVENCHY,  SIMON  D'Au- 
TRIE,  GILES  LE  VINIER,  and  GUILLAUME  LE  VINIER. 
He  has  proved  that  they  all  belonged  to  the  Church, 
many  of  them  to  the  Arras  chapter;  one  must  believe 
that  the  Deity  gave  Arras  unusual  licence  in  its  moral  ^ 
standards. 

Audefroi  le  Batard  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
ballad- writers.  Having  gone  through  the  regular  course 
of  rhymed  love-songs,  he  broke  away  from  their  monotony 
and  revived  the  long-forgotten  romance  and  put  new 
life  into  the  chanson  de  toile  of  early  lyrical  times.  But 
the  old  specimens  and  those  by  Audefroi  le  Batard  are 
as  far  apart  as,  for  instance,  the  Chanson  de  Roland  and 
Voltaire's  Henriade;  Audefroi 's  work  is  clever,  charming 
and  readable  enough,  but  spontaneity  is  subordinated 
to  formalism. 

Little  is  known  of  this  writer;  chronological  data 
enable  us  to  fix  one  of  his  songs  in  the  year  1225.  He 
is  supposed  to  have  been  a  native  of  Arras;  at  least,  M. 
Guesnon's  researches  proved  that  he  lived  there.  He 
must  have  been  born  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
but  his  poetical  activities  belong  wholly  to  the  first 
half  of  the  century  following.1 

Leaving  aside  for  the  moment  the  trouveres  of  Artois, 
let  us  consider  some  of  the  writers  from  other  provinces 
who  contribute  to  this  second  period. 

1  A.  Guesnon,  Nouvelles  recherches  biographiques  sur  les  trouveres 
artesiens,  in  Le  May  en  Age,  May-June,  1902. 


118  TROUVfcRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

GUILLAUME  DE  FERRiERES  was  Vidame  (viscount)  of 
Chartres;  it  is  by  this  title  the  manuscripts  usually 
mention  him.  The  most  important  event  of  his  life 
was  his  share  in  the  fourth  Crusade.  In  1202,  he  re- 
joined the  Crusaders  at  Vienna  and  accompanied  them 
as  far  as  Zara,  but  left  the  siege  of  this  town  for  Syria, 
with  a  few  companions.  It  was  not  till  nearly  the  end  of 
1203  that  he  returned  to  Constantinople.  He  may  have 
ended  his  days  as  a  Templar,  for  a  Grand  Master  of  the 
Order,  called  Guillaume  de  Chartres,  died  of  the  plague 
at  Damietta  in  1219. 

BOUCHARD  DE  MARLY  was  a  great  and  powerful 
seigneur  of  the  house  of  Montmorency;  he  disappears  in 
1236,  after  the  return  from  the  Crusade  against  the 
Albigenses,  in  which  he  took  part. 

The  work  of  GAUTIER  DE  COINCI  (died  1236)  owes 
its  whole  inspiration  to  religious  fervour.  In  his  immense 
collection  of  Miracles  de  Notre-Dame,  in  his  long-winded 
stories,  all  in  poetical  narrative,  he  has  interpolated 
some  lyrical  poems  which  rank  as  masterpieces  of  their 
kind.  Having  written  of  these  at  length  elsewhere,  I 
need  only  observe  that  the  same  man  who  was  Monk 
at  Saint-Medard  de  Soissons  and  Prior  at  Vic-sur-Aisne 
was  the  most  truly  devout  of  trouveres,  a  solitary  ex- 
ample, as  far  as  I  know. 

Literary  history  ascribes  a  certain  number  of  works  to 
RICHARD  DE  FOURNIVAL,  among  them  being  a  Latin 
treatise,  a  Biblionomia  (the  title  indicating  that  the 
venerable  poet  was  already  cognisant  of  rules  for 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVftRES  119 

cataloguing  a  library);  a  romance  called  Abladane 
(probably  a  translation  from  some  Latin  original) ;  and, 
lastly,  the  most  familiar  of  his  works,  the  Bestiaire  d' Amour; 
but  it  is  as  author  of  some  fifteen  songs  that  Richard  de 
Fournival  finds  a  place  in  lyrical  poetry.  This  trouvere 
occupied  a  high  official  position;  he  was  Chancellor  to 
the  Church  at  Amiens  in  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century. 

Many  other  names  must  be  included  in  a  survey  of  this 
period.  Among  them  is  RICHART  DE  SEMILLI,  to  whom 
his  modern  editor,  G.  Steffens,1  assigns  ten  songs,  all 
extant,  both  words  and  music. 

ROGER  D' AND  ELI  was  a  Norman  trouvere,  appointed 
by  John  Lackland  in  1201  to  be  castellan  of  Lavardin, 
in  Maine,  while  retaining  the  seigneurie  of  Herman ville 
(Caux). 

ROBERT  MAUVOISIN  may  be  included  here,  if  he  may 
be  identified  with  the  knight  mentioned  in  Villehardouin's 
Chronique  de  la  conquete  de  Constantinople  and  associated 
with  Simon  de  Montfort  in  the  Albigensian  War. 

THIBAUT  DE  BLASON  was  an  Angevin;  he  appears  at 
various  times  in  the  history  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
He  was  still  living  in  1222,  and  died  in  1229.  Nine  songs 
entitle  him  to  a  place  among  the  poets.  The  King  of 
Navarre  called  him  "Mon  chier  ami;"  this  is  his  best 
claim  to  literary  distinction. 


1  Der  kritische   Text  der  Gedichte  von  Richart  de  Semilli.     Halle, 
Niemeyer,  1902. 


120  TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

THIRD    PERIOD 

This  final  period  of  lyrical  activity  covers  the  last 
sixty  years  of  Saint  Louis's  century.  It  is  characterised 
by  more  and  more  finish  and  ingenuity  in  rhythmical 
combination;  the  verses  assume  complexities  without 
end,  in  a  strange  jumble  of  heterogeneous  types.  This 
leads  inevitably  to  a  fresh  start  and  the  discovery  of 
models  hitherto  unknown  to  or  neglected  by  other  trou- 
veres;  the  further  the  development  departs  from  the 
original  lines,  the  more  exacting  grows  the  task. 

The  traditional  class-division  holds  its  own  in  the 
social  scheme;  while  the  noble  lords  retain  their  place  in 
the  lyrical  poetry  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  middle 
classes  are  gradually  acquiring  a  taste  for  poetry  and  the 
humanities.  But  it  is  in  the  wealthy  towns  of  Artois  and 
Northern  France  that  the  growth  and  vitality  of  the 
movement  are  most  marked.  Intellectual  progress 
marches  side  by  side  with  material  prosperity  in  these 
districts,  the  partnership  being  probably  financed  by 
lovers  and  patrons  of  art  whose  names  are  forgotten 
but  whose  influence  remains. 

Three  troubadours,  whose  melodies  have  escaped 
oblivion,  belong  to  this  period. 

Uc  DE  SAINT-CIRC  (Hugh  of  Saint-Circ)  has  left  us 
but  three  of  his  works.  His  brothers  intended  him  for 
the  Church,  and  sent  him  to  Montpellier  to  study  litera- 
ture, Latin  and  theology.  But  his  troubadour  soul 
neglected  these  for  sirventes  and  cansos;  it  was  a  jongleur 
and  not  a  cleric  who  returned  to  his  domestic  hearth. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        121 

But  Uc  de  Saint-Circ  fully  earned  his  contemporaries' 
eulogy :  cantos  fetz  de  fort  bonas  e  de  bons  sons.  (He  wrote 
very  fine  songs  and  tunes.)1  He  well  deserves  a  place 
in  the  history  of  music. 

We  possess  six  songs  by  AIMERIC  DE  PEGUILHAN 
(Peguillan) .  Enamoured  of  a  fair  neighbour,  and  seeking 
a  means  to  disclose  his  passion,  he  took  to  composing, 
and  continued  long  after  the  fever  had  worn  itself  out. 
The  Editor  of  the  Biographies2  (M.  C.  Chabaneau) 
gives  1266  as  the  latest  date  of  his  poetical  output. 

The  most  important,  and,  chronologically,  the  last  of 
the  troubadours  whose  works  survive,  GUIRAUT  RIQUIER, 
has  for  many  years  been  the  subject  of  erudite  research 
on  the  part  of  the  French  scholar,  M.  Joseph  Anglade. 
His  edition  seems  very  complete,3  but,  considering  the 
importance  of  Guiraut  Riquier's  musical  compositions 
(we  have  no  less  than  forty-eight  of  them),  leaves  a 
serious  study  of  this  portion  of  his  work  still  to  be  written ; 
in  Guiraut  Riquier,  French  medieval  music  possesses 
one  of  its  most  masterly  exponents. 

Trouveres  are  very  numerous  in  this  period  of  Langue 
d'o'il  poetry;  they  are  either  noble  lords,  or  burghers, 
of  Northern  France. 

Giving  the  nobility  pride  of  place,  we  perceive  that 
this  aristocratic  constellation  clusters  round  the  most 

1  Biographies  des  troubadours,  p.  51. 

2  Biographies  des  troubadours,  p.  75. 

3  Anglade,  Le  Troubadour  Guiraut  Riquier.  fitude  sur  la  d6caden.ce 
de  Vancienne  poesie  provenqale.    Paris,  1905,  8V0. 


122  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

brilliant  star  in  the  feudal  hierachy,  both  socially  and 
x  intellectually,  namely,  Thibaut  of  Champagne,  King 
of  Navarre. 

Let  us  mention  a  few  names.  HUGUE  (Hugh)  DE 
LUSIGNAN  bore  the  title  of  Comte  de  la  Marche  from  1208 
to  1249.  Contemporary  chroniclers  relate  his  adventures 
in  history,  especially  in  his  disastrous  war  against  Louis 
IX,  his  suzerain.  His  literary  remains  comprise  three 
songs  only,  but  these  three  are  a  feast  of  delicacies. 

JEAN  DE  BRIENNE,  a  typical  knight-errant,  was  first 
a  usufructuary  of  the  Count  de  Brienne,  as  guardian  of 
his  nephew;  then  he  was  elected  King  of  Jerusalem;  then 
Regent  of  the  realm,  as  his  daughter's  guardian:  then 
ecclesiastical  administrator  under  Gregory  IX,  and, 
finally,  Regent  of  the  Greek  Empire,  as  guardian  of  the 
young  Beaudoin  de  Courtenay.  He  died  at  Constanti- 
nople in  1237.  This  adventurous  gentleman  appears  as 
trouvere  in  three  songs. 

PIERRE  MAUCLERC,  Duke  of  Brittany,  son  of  Robert 
II,  Count  of  Dreux,  was,  as  his  name  implies,  a  cleric 
without  a  living,  and  soon  discarded  his  vestments. 
He  became  Duke  of  Brittany  through  his  marriage  with 
Duchess  Alix  in  1212.  He  joined  two  crusades,  and 
died  in  1250,  when  on  the  point  of  embarking  for  home. 
We  have  seven  of  his  songs. 

THIBAUT,  Count  of  Bar,  HENRI,  Duke  of  Brabant, 
and  CHARLES,  Count  of  Anjou,  practically  complete 
the  band  of  the  noble  trouveres  whose  chief,  as  I  have 
said,  is  Thibaut  of  Champagne,  King  of  Navarre. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        123 

This  Prince  was  born  in  1201,  some  months  after  his 
father's  death;  the  regency  of  the  province,  of  which  he 
was  destined  to  be  the  twelfth  Count,  was  entrusted  to 
his  mother,  Blanche  of  Navarre,  whose  skilful  manage- 
ment saved  Champagne  from  disaster.  In  1224  the 
young  Count  followed  Louis  VIII  in  his  Poitou  expedi- 
tion against  English  rule  and  took  part  in  the  operations 
at  Rochelle.  Two  years  later,  in  August,  1226,  his 
conflict  with  the  throne  began,  when  he  withdrew  pre- 
maturely from  the  King's  army  in  order  to  return  home. 
Louis  VIII  was  preparing  to  avenge  this  slight  upon  his 
royal  dignity,  when  he  died  in  Auvergne. 

The  story  of  the  early  years  of  Blanche  of  Castile's 
regency  belongs  to  history,  which  can  appraise  the 
statesmanship  and  initiative  shown  by  the  queen  in 
combating  the  united  hostility  of  powerful  feudatories, 
the  counts  of  Champagne,  Brittany,  la  Marche  and 
Boulogne,  against  a  foreign  queen  and  her  twelve-year- 
old  child.  When  Thibaut  foresaw  himself  coming  to 
grief  in  his  royal  quarrel,  he  lost  no  time  in  throwing 
himself  on  the  mercy  of  the  young  king,  who,  well 
advised  by  his  mother,  pardoned  the  repentant  knight. 
The  latter,  with  some  lack  of  self-respect,  not  only  offered 
his  sovereign  hostages  in  token  of  his  submission,  but 
went  so  far  as  to  disclose  the  plans  of  his  late  allies  (1226). 

The  barons  whom  he  had  betrayed,  attributing  this 
defection  to  the  irresistible  attractions  of  the  queen 
and  a  budding  passion  on  the  part  of  Thibaut,  poured 
forth  their  resentment  upon  both.  Contemporary  poets 


124        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

echoed  these  accusations,  one  of  the  most  virulent  being 
the  trouvere  Hue  de  la  Ferte. 

But  now  Thibaut,  disappointed  at  his  fruitless  wooing 
of  the  queen,  took  up  with  his  old  friends  and  headed 
a  fresh  intrigue  against  the  throne,  undertaking  to  marry 
Yolande  of  Brittany.  The  queen  was  clever  enough 
to  foil  this  luckless  scheme;  Thibaut  gave  up  the  idea  of 
marriage  and  remained  with  the  queen.  Betrayed  a 
second  time,  the  feudatories  overran  Champagne  and 
ravaged  the  domains  of  Thibaut,  who  found  himself 
deserted  by  his  dependents  and  harassed  on  all  sides. 
It  was  only  in  1231  that  the  arrival  of  the  king's  army 
enabled  Thibaut  to  make  honourable  terms  of  peace 
with  the  insurgents. 

Soon  after,  in  1234,  Sancho  the  Strong,  King  of 
Navarre,  brother  of  Thibaut's  mother,  Blanche,  died, 
and  the  Count  of  Champagne  was  proclaimed  King  of 
Navarre. 

This  rise  to  power  prompted  Thibaut  to  the  conviction 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  another  conflict  with  the  King 
of  France,  to  whom,  nevertheless,  he  was  so  greatly 
indebted;  and  without  the  consent  of  Louis  IX,  Thibaut 
married  his  only  daughter  to  the  eldest  son  of  the  Duke 
of  Brittany.  The  King's  retort  to  this  affront  was  to 
prepare  for  the  invasion  of  Champagne,  but  Thibaut, 
without  waiting  for  this  catastrophe,  hurried  to  Vin- 
cerines  to  sue  for  the  royal  pardon. 

Then  Thibaut,  whose  vacillating  policy  made  him  an 
object  of  suspicion  to  feudatory  and  prince  alike,  took 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        125 

to  piety,  and,  despairing  of  worldly  success,  gave  heed 
to  the  salvation  of  his  soul.  This  was,  perhaps,  his 
first  moment  of  sincerity.  He  organised  a  new  crusade 
(1239).  This  futile  project  came  to  nothing,  and  by  the 
end  of  1240  the  Count  was  home  again.  The  close  of 
his  life  is  wrapped  in  obscurity;  he  died  in  July,  1253, 
but  it  is  not  known  whether  "at  Troyes  where  he  was 
Count,  or  at  Pampeluna  where  he  was  king." 

In  the  case  of  some  of  the  trouveres  we  regret  the 
paucity  of  our  information,  because  their  verses  breathe 
a  spirit  of  heroism  and  nobility  that  encourages  us  to 
ascribe  to  the  authors  a  life  instinct  with  beauty  and 
generosity.  But  in  Thibaut's  case  we  regret  that  we  are 
only  too  well  informed.  History  has  shorn  the  poet  of 
his  laurels.  We  should  have  preferred  to  know  him 
through  his  poems  alone;  they  are  worth  so  much  more 
than  the  man  who  wrote  them.1 

The  chief  claim  of  this  kingly  trouvere  to  our  gratitude 
is  that  he  lavished  the  resources  of  his  lofty  position  on 
the  patronage  of  his  fellow  poets,  and  that  it  is  to  him  we 
appear  to  owe  the  employment  of  copyists  for  the  re- 
production of  many  fine  manuscripts;  although  these 
copies  contain  principally  the  works  of  the  great  man 
himself,  they  include  songs  by  other  trouveres  too, 
thus  bringing  us  into  touch  with  a  form  of  art  which  is 
the  most  charming  feature  of  medieval  music  in  France. 

1  The  author's  edition  of  MS.  5198  in  the  Bibliotheque  de  I' Arsenal 
gives  fifty-nine  melodies  by  Thibaut  of  Champagne,  transcribed 
into  modern  notation  and  reproduced  in  facsimile.  See  Le  Chan- 
sonnier  de  I' Arsenal,  Paris,  Geuthner,  1909,  4to. 


126  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

While  Central  France  was  disturbed  by  the  quarrels  of 
its  aristocratic  trouveres,  the  worthy  citizens  of  Arras 
lived  lives  better  occupied  with  labour,  music  and  poetry. 
So  the  list  of  Arras  trouveres  is  enormous,  and  includes 

GlLLEBERT    DE    BERNEVILLE,    CoLART    LE    BOUTEILLIER, 

ERNOUL  CAUPAIN,  HUITASSE  DE  FONTAINE,  ROBERT  DE  LE 
PIERRE,  and  JEAN  LE  GRIE VILER;  but  "among  the  nebulae 
of  the  poetical  firmament  of  Arras,  JEAN  BRETEL  seems  to 
shine  out  as  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude.  During  the 
period  comprised  in  the  two  crusades  of  Saint  Louis,  this 
prince  of  the  court  of  love,  this  king  of  the  partimen,  was 
the  master-mind  of  the  great  literary  movement  of  which 
Arras  was  the  centre."1  More  than  forty  songs  by  this 
trouvere  are  left  us.  Yet,  in  spite  of  his  importance,  he 
was  little  known  until  the  fruitful  research  of  M.  Guesnon 
established  his  true  identity  and  his  historical  personality, 
and  was  able  to  show,  amongst  other  details,  that  Jean 
Bretel  died  in  August  or  September,  1272. 

With  Jean  Bretel  we  may  put  ADAM  LE  Bossu,  or 
DE  LA  HALLE,  who  far  outshines  all  his  contemporaries. 
To  us  his  importance  is  considerable,  because  he  was 
incontestably  a  skilled  musician,  equally  master  of 
descant  and  French  verse,  and  treated  his  poetical  and 
musical  material  with  equal  freedom.  Hence  it  was 
Adam  de  la  Halle  whom  Coussemaker,  the  founder  of 
medieval  musicology,  selected  for  his  project  of  devoting 
a  whole  work  to  one  trouvere.2  More  recently,  a 

1  Guesnon,  Nouvelles  Recherches,  p.  164. 

2  De   Coussemaker,    CEuvres  completes   du   trouvere   Adam   de  la 
Halle.     Paris,  1872,  4to. 


TROUBADOURS  AND  TROUVERES        127 

historian  of  medieval  literature,  M.  Guy,  has  given  us  an 
entirely  new  presentment  of  the  man;1  but,  after  all, 
the  actual  known  facts  of  his  life  can  be  told  in  a  very 
few  lines. 

Adam  married  when  still  a  young  clerk,  vanquished 
at  first  sight  by  a  beauty  whose  charms  he  won 
A  la  grant  saveur  de  Vauckeles. 

But,  apart  from  his  marriage,  nothing  is  known  of 
his  early  life,  except  that  afterwards,  regretting  his  lost 
career,  he  resolved  to  go  to  Paris  and  resume  his  studies. 
Did  he  follow  up  the  calling  attested  by  the  Conge? 
We  do  not  know,  but  at  any  rate  he  is  lost  to  sight 
thenceforth.  M.  Guesnon  asks  if  the  poet  really  joined 
the  household  of  Robert  of  Artois,  at  an  early  date, 
and  shows  that  nothing  corroborates  the  conjecture;  he 
adds  that  the  one  certain  fact  is  that  Adam  was  induced 
by  some  discontented  colleagues  to  leave  Arras  and 
follow  the  Count  to  Pouille,  where  he  died  in  1286  or  1287. 

This  Chapter  may  be  summarised  very  briefly  and 
concisely  by  a  repetition  of  my  contention  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  book:  "The  trouveres  were  musicians,  as  well 
as  poets."  Musicians  will  be  found  among  the  names 
here  cited;  the  earliest  of  our  musicians,  but  genuine 
representatives  of  French  music.  I  say  once  more  that 
for  the  most  part  they  were  originators  both  of  the 
words  and  the  accompanying  music.  Many,  perhaps, 

1  Henri  Guy,  Essai  sur  la  vie  et  les  ceuvres  du  trourere  Adam  de  la 
Halle. 


128  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

had  collaborators  who  composed  their  tunes  for  them, 
but  this  was  not  done  openly,  and  even  these  proxies 
are  no  less  a  part  of  our  musical  history. 


THE   JONGLEURS 

Just  as  the  modern  sculptor  has  his  founder  or  moulder, 
and  the  composer  has  his  interpreter,  so  the  medieval 
troubadour  or  trouvere,  poet  and  musician  alike,  had 
his  JONGLEUR  (or  joglar),  whose  profession  was  to  go 
from  town  to  town  and  from  castle  to  castle,  to  gain 
a  hearing — for  his  own  profit,  of  course — for  the  com- 
positions of  the  masters  of  his  art. 

The  jongleur  and  his  calling  are  one  of  the  curiosities  of 
musical  history,  the  product,  not  of  the  whole  medieval 
period,  but  principally  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries.  In  former  times  these  worthies  were  known  by 
other  names;  later,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  they  formed 
a  brotherhood  and  became  minstrels.  But  in  the  time 
of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  the  jongleurs  had  no 
recognised  status  or  organisation:  they  were  isolated 
individuals,  essentially  rovers  and  vagabonds.  The 
genuine  bohemians  of  the  art-world,  they  occupy  so 
important  a  place  in  musical  history  that  I  shall  en- 
deavour to  define  it. 

Though  a  general  distinction  between  trouvere  and 
jongleur  seems  simple  enough,  cases  of  confusion  between 
the  two  are  frequent. 

We  have  seen  troubadours  forced  to  turn  jongleurs. 
Perdigon,  who  followed  his  father's  calling  and  started 
as  a  jongleur,  was  a  skilful  player,  singer  and  composer, 


130       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

"fo  joglar  e  sap  trop  ben  molar  e  trobar  e  cantar."  As 
we  mentioned  before,  Gui  d'Ussel,  with  his  brothers 
and  cousin,  had  founded  a  learned  society,  where  each 
member  had  his  own  allotted  task.  We  know  too  that 
the  Northern  jongleur,  Colin  Muset,  ranked  with  the 
best  of  our  lyric  trouveres.  A  jongleur  who  became  a 
trouvere  gained  promotion  thereby.  But  just  now  we 
are  concerned  only  with  jongleurs  as  such,  that  is,  either 
as  companions  of  some  noble  trouvere  and  interpreters 
of  his  works,  or  as  journeymen  on  his  behalf,  hawking 
their  musical  wares  from  castle  to  castle.  Sometimes, 
too,  the  great  feudal  household  retained  a  jongleur, 
who  was  attached  to  the  person  of  a  nobleman  or  king. 
Originally  these  household  entertainers  seem  to  have 
been  classed  with  servants,  and  borne  the  title  of 
ministri  (from  whose  diminutive,  ministrelli,  was  derived 
the  French  word  menestrel).  But  in  the  time  of  Philip 
Augustus  and  Louis  IX  the  terms  jongleur  and  minstrel 
seem  to  have  been  interchangeable.  Here,  however, 
I  will  use  the  term  jongleur. 

Having  denned  the  social  condition  of  the  jongleur, 
we  must  examine  some  of  the  problems  relative  to  his 
mode  of  life,  such  as  his  training  in  the  schools  of  minstrel- 
sy, his  opportunities  for  exercising  his  craft,  his  unques- 
tioned artistic  standing,  and,  finally,  the  attitude  of  his 
contemporaries,  and  the  Church,  towards  his  profession. 

The  jongleur  certainly  had  a  trade,  and  every  trade 
must  be  learnt.  M.  Henri  Lavoix  has  stated  the 
case  very  clearly.  "It  is  hard  to  believe  that  these 


THE  JONGLEURS  131 

artists  of  all  sorts  and  conditions,  who  went  the  round 
of  towns,  castles  and  great  houses,  playing  and  singing, 
these  girls,  half  strumpet,  half  musician,  who  sang  and 
piped  when  they  were  not  turning  somersaults,  as  may 
be  seen  in  the  chapiteau  of  Saint-Georges  de  Bocherville, 
came  straight  from  the  episcopal  or  monastic  schools."1 
The  old  records  prove  beyond  doubt  the  existence  of 
schools  of  minstrelsy,  and  we  may  well  suppose  that  they 
were  carried  on  till  the  thirteenth  century  at  least. 
The  school  was  open  in  Lent,  that  is  to  say,  the  period 
when  jongleurs  were  forbidden  to  perform 'in  public. 
It  was  in  these  popular  conservatories  that  the  jongleurs 
replenished  their  exhausted  repertoire,  learning  new 
songs  and  tunes  to  meet  the  popular  demand.  They  also 
received  elementary  instruction  in  playing  the  viola 
and  other  instruments,  and  it  was  at  these  gatherings 
of  jongleurs,  no  doubt,  that  bargains  were  struck  for  the 
sale  and  purchase  of  pocket  song-books  (in  manuscript) 
for  the  use  of  our  ambulant  artists. 

Moreover,  it  was  quite  in  accord  with  medieval  con- 
ditions that  the  budding  jongleur  should  learn  his  trade 
by  following  and  serving  a  master,  whose  singing  in 
public  he  would  accompany  on  an  instrument,  in  return 
for  initiation  into  the  tricks  of  his  craft:  the  jongleur 
and  his  companions  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  Biographies 
d#4  Troubadours.  Possibly  these  apprenticeships  were 
agreed  upon  in  the  schools  of  minstrelsy.  But  these 

1  Lavoix,  La  musique  au  siecle  de  saint  Louis  (essays  published  as 
a  sequel  to  G.  Raymond's  Motets  fran$ais  du  xme  siecle).  Paris, 
1881,  2  vols.,  8™. 


132  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

are  conjectures  only,  and  we  must  leave  them  for  material 
more  tangible. 

Where  were  the  jongleurs  bred?  It  would  almost 
require  a  complete  picture  of  feudal  life  to  describe  all 
the  occasions  on  which  the  jongleurs*  both  northern 
and  southern,  might  be  expected  to  appear.  They 
swarmed  everywhere,  even  in  cloisters  and  churches, 
from  which  it  would  seem  that  they  should  have  been 
most  rigorously  excluded,  and  in  pilgrimages,  too, 
probably  attracted  more  by  the  lure  of  good  fees  from 
a  well-to-do  crowd  than  by  the  odour  of  sanctity. 

The  laity  were  more  accessible,  for,  even  in  the  time  of 
Saint  Louis,  as  in  our  day,  music  appears  to  have 
formed  a  welcome  relief  to  the  serious  side  of  life  and  an 
indispensable  adjunct  to  mirth  and  merry-making. 

Like  the  moth  to  the  candle,  the  jongleur  makes  riches 
and  favour  his  first  objective;  he  tries  to  gain  entrance 
into  a  royal  household,  either  as  a  permanent  appendage 
or  as  an  occasional  guest.  Numerous  entries  of  payments, 
especially  in  princely  households,  show  that  jongleurs 
managed  somehow  to  make  their  way  into  the  homes  of 
the  great,  and,  incidentally,  give  us  some  idea  as  to  the 
scale  of  fees  exacted. 

The  royal  and  princely  courts  of  the  West  cultivated 
the  arts  to  some  extent,  and  into  these,  as  elsewhere,  the 
jongleurs  pushed  their  way.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
they  were  tolerated  with  varying  enthusiasm,  according 
as  the  tastes  of  the  noble  lord  whom  they  pestered 
inclined  to  poetry  or  to  some  less  refined  amusement;  it  is 


THE  JONGLEURS  133 

not  difficult  to  imagine  that  in  the  society  which  centred 
round  a  lofty  patron  of  poetry  and  letters  such  as  Thi- 
baut  of  Champagne,  jongleurs  were  likely  to  be  very 
numerous.  The  County  of  Champagne  was  the  prom- 
ised land  of  the  jongleurs.  The  lords  of  Vignory  treated 
Colin  Muset  with  generosity;  at  one  period,  as  two  con- 
temporary anonymous  ballads  tell  us,  the  lords  of 
ChoiseulandReynel  showered  their  presents  on  wandering 
jongleurs;  and  in  our  own  time  tramps  have  their  signal 
code  for  marking  likely  hunting  grounds. 

Essentially  creatures  of  fancy  and  mirth,  it  is  during 
the  lighter  moments  of  feudal  society  that  jongleurs 
are  sure  to  be  found,  for  little  sagacity  is  required  to 
conjecture  that  high  spirits  open  the  hand  of  liberality 
wider  than  the  dumps.  For  this  reason,  the  jongleurs 
hastened  to  participate  in  the  festivities  of  their  day, 
and  did  not  scruple  to  attend  private  feasts  uninvited. 
Was  there  a  wealthy  marriage  afoot,  they  hurried  to 
assist  at  it:  the  richer  the  bride  and  her  groom,  the 
greater  the  stir,  and  the  greater  the  crowd  of  jongleurs 
that  hurried  to  the  festival  from  all  quarters;  this  custom 
is  known  to  us  from  numerous  chansons  de  geste,  such 
as  A'ie  d' Avignon,1  Raoul  de  Cambrai,2  La  Prise  d'Orenge? 
and  Aubry  le  Bourgoin* 

To  suggest  that  this  anxiety  of  the  jongleurs  to  add 

1  A'ie  d' Avignon,   published    by   Guessard  and  Paul   Meyer   (v. 
4102  et  seq.),  Paris,  1861. 

2  Raoul  de    Cambrai,  pub.  by  Paul  Meyer  (v.  6087-8),  in  the 
Societe  des  anciens  textes  frangais. 

3  La  Prise  d'Orenge,  pub.  by  Jonckbloet  (v.  1873  et  seq.). 

4  Aubry  le  Bourgoin,  pub.  by  Tarbe,  pp.  37-8. 


134       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

lustre  to  wedding  festivities  was  quite  disinterested  is 
a  poor  compliment  to  their  astuteness;  contemporary 
texts  give  ample  grounds  for  the  opposite  conclusion. 

They  took  part  in  the  wedding  feast  and  received  a  fee, 
certainly,  but  their  chief  profits  often  came  from  presents 
in  kind.  The  clever  jongleur  would  find  himself 
smothered  in  jewels  and  personal  effects  showered  upon 
him  by  enthusiastic  guests.  These  gifts  would  consist 
of  anything  that  came  to  hand:  "mantiaux  et  bliaux 
engoules"  (mantles  and  broidered  tunics) ;  horses,  mules 
and  palfreys,  saddle-horses,  statues,  cups  and  bowls  of 
silver  and  fine  gold,  just  as  latter-day  grandees  and 
ministers  reward  the  mountebanks  of  the  Opera  and  the 
Comedie-Frangaise  with  gifts  of  Sevres;  one  can  well 
imagine  that  the  thirteenth-century  jongleurs,  too,  had 
the  wit  to  make  capital  out  of  their  boasted  successes; 
for  does  not  generous  praise  stimulate  generous  giving? 

But,  as  most  people  marry  but  once,  these  windfalls, 
though  remunerative,  were  scarce.  Some  less  important 
occasion  was  exploited;  where  a  banquet  was  not  too 
solemn  a  function  the  jongleur  became  an  indispensable 
adjunct  to  a  gathering  that  relieved  the  monotony  of  a 
feudal  existence  frequently  morose. 

The  traditions  of  knighthood  offered  numerous  and 
various  opportunities  for  the  activities  of  the  jongleur: 
after  his  own  fashion  he  turned  feudal  customs  and 
manners  to  account,  selecting  his  models  and  repaying 
them  with  a  'puff'  in  his  songs. 

Suppose  he  selects  a  young  knight's  first  appearance 


THE  JONGLEURS  135 

among  the  knightage.  A  religious  ceremony  has  pre- 
ceded the  initiation;  now  comes  the  veillee  des  armes  (the 
vigil  of  arms).  But  the  night  is  long  and  boredom  threa- 
tens, so  a  jongleur  is  called  in,  as  a  sort  of  lay  preacher,  to 
revive  drooping  spirits  with  discourse  and  song.  In 
the  morning  comes  the  ceremony  of  warlike  array,  when 
the  young  knight  takes  the  helm  and  spear,  and  girds 
on  the  sword  he  must  henceforth  wear  and  honour;  this 
is  the  adoubement  (the  investiture) .  Here  is  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity for  the  parasite  of  mirth,  our  merry  friend  with 
his  budget  of  songs,  his  frolics  and  antics.1 

This  association  with  the  knightly  side  of  feudalism 
ensured  for  the  jongleur  the  entree  to  the  lists.  His 
presence  was  even  asked  for,  the  victors  looking  to  him 
for  the  transmission  to  posterity  of  their  feats  of  arms. 

Such  an  one  was  Pindar  at  the  Olympic  Games.  But 
after  him  comes  Tyrtaeus.  It  is  as  the  latter  that  we  find 
the  jongleur  in  medieval  texts.  Taillefer,  jongleur  and 
soldier,  before  the  battle  of  Hastings  sang  to  the  army 
a  poem  on  Roncevaux.  So  striking  is  the  picture  that 
we  regret  its  doubtful  authenticity. 

What  could  a  jongleur  do?  Had  his  profession  a 
genuinely  artistic  side? 

Of  course,  the  jongleurs  had  their  "poor  relations," 
the  mountebanks  with  their  sleight-of-hand,  the  show- 
men with  their  performing  animals  to  amuse  the 
bumpkins,  all  the  types  found  in  a  travelling  circus; 

1  See  Lambert  d'Ardres,  Chronicon  Ghisnense  et  Ardense,  ed. 
Menilglaise,  p.  207,  for  the  initiation  of  Arnoul.son  of  Baudoin  II, 
Comte  de  Guignes,  in  1181. 


136       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

we  are  not  concerned  with  these,  but  with  the  better 
class,  the  real  jongleurs,  the  only  ones  worthy  of  the 
name,  sufficiently  cultured  and  talented  to  play,  sing 
and  recite  in  good  society. 

We  have  previously  observed  that  there  was  a  class 
of  jongleurs  who  sang  of  great  deeds  (chansons  de  geste), 
recounting  the  achievements  of  heroes  or  the  pieties 
of  saints,  and,  side  by  side  with  these,  the  lyrical  jon- 
gleurs, the  usual  interpreters  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres.  Their  song  was  supported  by  instrumental 
accompaniment;  the  jongleur  was  expected  to  be  singer 
and  player  too.  This  twofold  accomplishment  was  no 
doubt  enhanced  by  a  respectable  knowledge  of  theory; 
for,  allowing,  as  will  be  shown  in  the  next  chapter,  that 
the  notation  of  the  songs  does  not  fix  the  duration  of 
the  notes,  that  the  rhythm  is  a  hidden  quantity,  and 
that  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  rhythmical  scheme 
of  the  period  is  necessary  before  we  can  discover  it, 
we  must  conjecture  that  the  jongleurs,  before  exercising 
their  calling,  had  to  master  the  rhythmical  formulae  in 
the  schools  of  minstrelsy,  where  they  received  their 
professional  training.  The  songs  they  sang  were  such 
as  those  we  have  discussed,  the  compositions  of  the 
troubadours  and  trouveres.  The  jongleurs  had  the 
whole  catalogue  at  their  disposal — ballads,  love-songs, 
sirventes  (which  are  genuine  satires),  descorts  (discords, 
songs  with  a  change  of  metre  and  melody  in  each  verse), 
lays,  pious  songs,  chansons  de  toile  (spinning-songs),  albas 
(dawn-songs),  rotruenges  (retroensa),  pastorals,  rondeaux, 


THE  JONGLEURS  137 

dancing  rondels,  estampies — everything  that  was  sung 
in  the  middle  ages. 

They  played  instruments  also,  for  they  seem  to  have 
exercised  a  complete  monopoly  of  all  musical  culture. 
We  can  well  understand  that  bowed  instruments  of  the 
viol  family  were  found  the  most  convenient  for  accom- 
panying the  voice,  on  account  of  their  adaptability  for 
sustaining  tones  and  the  drone-bass  to  support  the  singer. 

Such  is  the  figure  we  can  picture  to  ourselves,  his 
viele  slung  across  his  shoulders,  and  his  wallet  of  songs  in 
his  girdle,  tramping  through  town  and  village  on  his 
way  to  a  neighbouring  castle,  in  search  of  food  and 
housing;  but  we  can  also  imagine  that  his  visits  prompted 
mothers  to  hide  their  daughters  and  old  folks  their  purses. 

For  though  there  were  a  few  happy  exceptions,  some 
jongleurs  being  almost  heroes,  like  the  legendary  Daurel, 
who  substituted  his  own  child  for  his  master's  son 
threatened  with  death  by  a  traitor,  medieval  writings 
give  the  real  denizens  of  artistic  Bohemia  a  very 
disreputable  character.  Preachers  railed  at  them,  the 
church  excommunicated  them,  and  repressive  measures  - 
against  them  were  taken  by  the  throne  itself. 

The  general  impression  gathered  from  contemporary 
writings  more  or  less  concerned  with  jongleurs  is  ad- 
mirably summed  up  by  the  author  of  the  Tresor  de 
toutes  chosesy  Brunetto  Latini,  who  wrote  a  thirteenth- 
century  encyclopedia  in  French.1 

1  Brunetto  Latini,  Li  Trtsors,  etc.  Book  I,  Part  1,  Ch.  35,  in 
Chabaille's  edition. 


138        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

"Jogleor  est  cil  qui  converse  entre  la  gent  a  ris  et  a  geu 
et  moque  soi  et  sa  feme  et  ses  enfans  et  tous  autres." 
(A  jongleur  is  a  person  who  laughs  and  jokes  in  public, 
ridiculing  self,  wife,  children  and  every  one  else.) 

The  demoralisation  here  revealed  is  pitiful,  yet  fairly 
reflects  a  spectacle  common  enough  in  our  own  times, 
a  whole  family  parading  their  dismal  antics  for  the 
public  delectation. 

Unreasoning  greed  is  the  prevailing  sin,  the  mainspring 
of  all  the  vices  and  misdeeds  associated  with  the  craft; 
to  satisfy  their  craving,  unscrupulous  jongleurs  were  not 
above  singing  a  bad  song  well.  The  middle  ages  had  a 
kind  of  proverb,  "Offer  him  a  hundred  silver  marks; 
if  he  takes  them,  he  is  a  jongleur's  son." 

Other  characteristics  were  the  jongleur's  preference  for 
a  tavern  rather  than  a  sermon,  his  conception  of  drinking 
and  gambling  as  the  birthright  of  the  wanderer  who 
takes  no  thought  for  the  morrow  and  squanders  his 
night's  earnings  before  daybreak.  At  least,  such  was 
contemporary  opinion.  In  Moniage  Guillaume  we  find 
a  perfect  little  sketch  of  the  type.  The  jongleur  has  a 
few  pence  in  his  pocket;  he  goes  off  to  the  inn,  drinks, 
gambles  and  loses.  The  law  against  drunkenness,  which  is 
now  posted  up  in  country  taverns,  was  not  yet  in  force, 
but  mine  host,  plump  and  wary,  does  not  wait  for  that 
before  stopping  his  customer's  supplies.  "Go  to,  my 
friend,  and  find  a  lodging  elsewhere!  But  first  settle 
your  score  or  leave  me  a  pledge  and  then  begone!" 
The  jongleur  has  neither  pence  nor  pack,  but  the 


THE  JONGLEURS  139 

inn-keeper  profits  by  the  fuddled  state  of  his  bohemian 
guest  to  keep  sa  chance  ou  son  soller  (his  hose  or  shoes)  in 
pawn,  and  ejects  the  poor  devil,  who  reels  out  gibbering 
and  laughing  in  maudlin  ecstasy.1 

Quant  voit  li  hostes  qu'il  a  tot  aloe  : 
"Frere,  fet  il,  querrez  aillors  hostel... 
Donez  moi  gage  de  ce  que  vous  devez." 
Et  cil  li  lesse  sa  chauce  ou  son  soller! 

(When  the  landlord  sees  he  is  cleaned  out, 
"Friend,"  he  says,  "go  seek  a  lodging  elsewhere, 
Give  me  a  pledge,  to  frank  your  score." 
And  he  [the  jongleur]  leaves  behind  his  hose  or 
his  shoes.) 

The  jongleurs  had  two  powerful  enemies  in  society, 
the  women  and  the  clergy.  The  former,  as  guardians  ! 
of  the  purity  of  the  domestic  hearth,  foresaw,  with  stern 
disapproval,  the  possible  infatuation  of  their  husbands, 
particularly  the  noblemen,  for  the  wretches  whose  songs 
excited  enthusiasm,  for  as  we  know,  this  enthusiasm  led 
to  ruinous  generosity.  We  also  suspect  the  jongleurs  as 
counsellors  fatal  to  conjugal  happiness,  and  even  as 
purveyors  of  extra-conjugal  delights.  An  anonymous 
song2  published  by  me  some  years  ago  contains  a  piquant 
monologue  by^  a  jongleur  highly  indignant  against  wives 
who  interfere  with  their  husbands'  customary  generosity. 
"Dieu!"  he  cries,  "nurses  and  children  are  the  death  of 
me,  and  wives  are  the  devil!"  To  the  church,  or  rather 
the  clergy,  this  excessive  liberality  was  equally  dis- 
tasteful. With  this  exception  their  attitude  towards  the 

1  Li  Moniage  Guillaume;  v.  1217   et  seq. 

2  Pierre  Aubry,   Un  coin  pittoresque  de  la  vie  artistique  au  xnie 
siecle.     Paris,  Picard,  1904. 


140  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

jongleurs  was  neither  intolerant  nor  unreasonable.  They 
deplored  the  profession  of  jongleur,  but  accepted  the 
plea  that  one  must  live  and  that  all  trades  are  good  if 
plied  honestly;  this  was  the  general  standpoint  of 
ecclesiastical  legislation. 

To-day  we  can  only  applaud  these  liberal  tendencies. 
If,  in  looking  back  on  this  age  of  tolerance,  we  must  deny 
ourselves  the  indulgence  of  enthusiasm  and  exaggeration, 
we  can  still  discern  a  certain  grandeur  in  the  jongleur's 
calling;  and  this  because  the  jongleurs  were  not  contented 
with  performing  the  light  and  courtly  poems  of  the 
lyrical  trouveres;  they  also  spread  abroad  the  chansons 
de  geste.  At  a  time  when  travel  was  a  hardship  and 
travellers  were  scarce,  they  overran  France  in  all  direc- 
tions, singing  of  Provence  to  the  townsfolk  of  Arras  and 
reciting  the  chronicles  of  Normandy  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  East.  They  sang  unceasingly  of  the  glories  of 
their  country,  the  mighty  deeds,  real  or  apocryphal,  of 
Pepin,  Garin  de  Monglane,  Guillaume  of  Orange  and 
Doon  of  Mentz  (Mainz);  they  popularised  the  serene 
personality  of  the  Emperor  Charlemagne.  By  means 
of  such  poems  as  Floovent,  Fierabras,  Pelerinage  de 
Charlemagne,  Roland,  Roi  Louis,  and  Huon  Chapet,  they 
created  what  is  known  to  scholars  as  the  national  epic. 
And  this  surely  suffices  to  establish  a  claim  that  the 
jongleurs,  in  spite  of  their  humble  calling,  contributed 
largely  to  the  birth  and  development  of  the  idea  of 
French  unity;  amidst  all  their  flummery  and  mummery 
was  a  leaven  of  patriotism.  In  the  course  of  their 


THE  JONGLEURS  141 

wanderings  they  scattered  the  seed  here  and  there,  like 
migratory  birds,  and  by  championing  the  cause  of  the 
Capet  dynasty,  assured  its  triumph  over  the  reactions 
of  feudalism. 

So,  if  it  be  true  that  in  France  all  things  end  with  a 
song,  something  similar  may  be  said  of  French  unity  and 
patriotism;  and  the  jongleurs  may  be  credited  with  some 
share  in  the  birth  and  growth  of  the  national  spirit. 


VI 

THE  MENSURAL  THEORY  OF  MUSIC  IN  THE 
THIRTEENTH  CENTURY 

The  worst  possible  method  of  studying  medieval  music 
is  to  take  modern  music  as  a  basis  and  standard.  Rather 
let  us  forget  all  we  know,  discarding  all  the  convictions 
and  prejudices  of  our  musical  intelligence  to  create  a  new 
and  special  attitude  of  mind  for  a  due  appreciation  of  the 
art-principles  which  inspired  thirteenth-century  musi- 
cians. Though  the  distance  be  great,  it  is  our  duty  to 
bridge  the  six  or  seven  centuries  of  theory  and  music 
which  separate  us  from  these  pioneers  who  were  also 
originators — for  in  the  works  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres  we  find  the  initiatives  of  French  music  with 
the  hall-mark  of  true  nationalism.  Let  us  forget  for 
a  moment  the  charming  Faure,  the  brilliant  Saint-Saens, 
the  uplifting  and  ennobling  Vincent  d'Indy,  let  us  forget 
our  contemporaries  of  creative,  varied  and  elusive  genius, 
to  study  the  grammar  of  the  musical  language  spoken 
by  our  ancestors. 

Need  we  repeat  that  the  troubadours  and  trouveres, 
at  the  commencement  of  their  activities  (the  first  half 
of  the  twelfth  century) ,  were  trained,  as  far  as  music  goes, 
in  the  austere  school  of  Gregorian  melody?  Their  works 
are,  however,  a  reaction  against  Gregorian  esthetics; 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     143 

or  I  might  say,  if  this  form  of  statement  be  preferred, 
that  their  ars  mensurabilis  is  an  evolution  of  the  ancient 
theory  of  liturgical  song  leading  into  the  rhythm  and 
tonality  of  modern  music.  We  hope,  therefore,  to  avoid 
the  dryness  of  a  purely  technical  exposition,  by  showing 
that  their  system  forms  the  connecting-link,  as  to  rhythm 
and  notation,  between  Gregorian  and  modern  music. 

We  must  first  explain  the  means  by  which  it  is  possi- 
ble to  understand  the  musical  texts  of  the  troubadours 
and  trouveres.  To  direct  our  footsteps,  medieval  writers 
marked  out  the  path,  which  none  have  trodden  since; 
the  signposts  are  the  treatises  issued  in  the  thirteenth 
century  and  brought  to  light  in  our  day  by  the  efforts  of 
the  French  scholar  to  whom  we  owe  the  first  attempt 
at  medieval  miisicology,  E.  de  Coussemaker,  in  the 
course  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

These  medieval  musical  treatises  offer  a  difficult  and 
delicate  problem;  to  profit  by  them,  one  needs  familiar- 
ity with  the  subject-matter;  nevertheless,  by  constant 
practice,  and  comparison  of  their  contents  with  the 
texts  expounded,  it  is  possible  to  explore  the  unknown 
region  of  medieval  music  without  fear  of  losing  one's 
way.  In  connection  with  the  theorists  of  the  ars  mensura- 
bilis, difficulties  of  a  special  kind  have  arisen.  For 
instance,  it  is  impossible  to  assign  definite  dates  to 
most  of  the  authors.  It  may  be  remembered  that  some- 
where about  1860  a  controversy,  no  less  futile  than 
violent,  raged  between  Fetis  and  Coussemaker  as  to 
whether  Franco  of  Cologne  lived  at  the  end  of  the 


144        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

eleventh  century  or  the  twelfth.  Fetis  ignored  all 
probability,  and  on  the  strength  of  doubtful  identifica- 
tions placed  the  famous  reformer  of  notation  in  the 
eleventh  century !  Coussemaker  put  him  a  century  later. 
Now,  it  appears  to  me  that  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
is  the  very  earliest  date  that  can  be  assigned  to  Franco, 
for  musical  documents  prior  to  that  date  show  no  traces 
of  being  influenced  by  his  reforms. 

But  this  rather  crude  assortment  of  medieval  theore- 
ticians contains  names  well  worth  preserving.  Foremost 
among  these  is  a  work  known  by  its  title  only,  a  venerable 
treatise  on  music,  the  Discantus  positio  vulgaris,  which 
gives  in  rudimentary  fashion  a  glimpse  of  the  earliest 
principles  of  ars  mensurabilis.  Apparently  it  was  issued 
either  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  or  at  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Jean  de  Garlande,  who 
certainly  lived  about  1240,  belongs  to  the  general  his- 
tory of  the  human  mind;  his  activities  were  not  confined 
to  music  alone,  but  manifested  themselves  in  many 
different  ways.  Franco  of  Cologne,  Franco  of  Paris,  an 
anonymous  writer  known  as  Aristotle,  and  an  English 
monk,  Walter  Odington,  lived  at  the  close  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.1  Two  authors  may  also  be  mentioned, 
John  de  Grocheo,  regens  Parisius  (unknown  before 
Johannes  Wolf's2  monograph  published  in  1900),  and 


1  These  treatises  are  published  in  E.   de  Coussemaker's  great 
work,  Scriptorum  de  musica  medii  aevi  nova  series;  Paris,  1864,  Vol.  I. 

2  Wolf,  Die  Musiklehre  des  Johannes  de  Grocheo,  in  the  "Sammel- 
bande  der  Internationalen  Musik-Gesellschaft,"  October,  1899. 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     145 

Magister  Amerus,  an  English  priest,  still  awaiting  the 
honour  of  publication. 

As  a  rule,  these  writers  preface  their  treatises  with  the 
statement  that  they  intend  to  confine  themselves  to 
"measured"  music,  or,  as  they  call  it,  the  ars  cantus 
mensurabilis,  liturgical  music  or  plain-chant  being 
sufficiently  familiar  to  their  readers.  And,  indeed,  they 
tell  us  nothing  about  the  tonality  of  secular  music, 
either  in  discant  or  in  the  songs  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres,  a  deficiency  the  more  regrettable  because  so 
difficult  to  supply.  However,  let  us  try  to  fill  the  gap 
and  direct  our  attention  to  the  musical  system  of  the 
thirteenth  century. 

I.     THE  OLD  TONALITIES  AND  THE  FIRST  STEPS 
IN  MODERN  TONALITY 

Secular  musicians  of  the  time  still  clung  to  the  very 
ancient  theory  of  ecclesiastical  tonality:  very  ancient, 
because  it  was  already  some  centuries  old  in  the  time 
of  Gregory  the  Great,  and  claimed  relationship  with 
the  works  of  Greek  writers  on  music.  I  call  it  tonality; 
the  term  modality  would  be  more  correct,  but  in  the 
mensural  terminology  it  would  produce  confusion, 
mode  there  being  synonymous  with  "rhythmical  for- 
mula." For  the  present  purpose  tonality  will  be  used  to 
express  what  a  more  exact  and  fluid  nomenclature 
would  call  modality,  the  latter  word  being  used  only  in 
connection  with  rhythm  in  mensuration. 


146  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  then,  the  basis  of  'measured' 
compositions  is  the  liturgical  tonality,  but  it  seems  that 
musicians  made  a  selection;  while  ecclesiastical  melodies 
were  divided  among  scales  of  eight  types,  beginning  on 
different  degrees  and  with  variously  distributed  domi- 
nants, the  works  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  present 
less  variety. 

In  certain  recent  works  a  careful  study  has  been  made 
of  the  rhythmical  system  of  the  thirteenth  century; 
but  the  tonality  is  much  less  familiar.  Only  a  few  of  its 
features  can  be  positively  set  forth;  beyond  these,  all 
is  vague.  The  following  seems  to  sum  up  our  information 
on  the  subject. 

The  distinction  between  authentic  and  plagal  modes 
is  lost;  or,  at  least,  the  latter  appear  only  as  transposi- 
tions of  the  former.1 

The  use  of  the  deuteros,  that  is,  the  tonality  established 
on  the  degree  of  E  (when  it  is  authentic),  and  on  B  (when 
it  is  plagal),  seems  to  have  become  more  and  more  rare. 

The  eighth  ecclesiastical  tone,  the  plagal  tetrardos, 
has  also  disappeared;  the  mensuralists  no  longer  at- 
tached to  tonality  the  importance  given  to  it  in  the 
classic  Gregorian  age,  and  did  not  grasp  the  differ- 
ences which  the  change  of  dominant  made  between 
the  ethos  (character)  of  the  eighth  mode  and  that  of  the 
first,  D  being  the  tonic  in  both  cases. 

1  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  Gregorian  music  the  term 
authentic  mode  is  applied  to  the  simple  scales  on  D,  E,  F  and  G,  and 
plagal  mode  to  those  on  A,  B  and  C.  Fuller  information  will  be  found 
in  text-books  on  the  subject. 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     147 

We  have,  then,  a  scale  D — D,  and  its  transposition 
a  fourth  lower,  A — A;  this  is  the  old  protos,  authentic 
and  plagal.  We  have  a  scale  F — F,  and  its  transposition 
C — C;  this  is  the  tritos  in  its  two  forms.  Finally,  we 
have  a  scale  on  G,  the  only  remnant  of  the  ancient 
tetrardos. 

As  we  know,  Church  Music  would  not  allow  changes 
in  the  degree  of  the  scale  by  means  of  the  sharp  or  flat. 
The  presence  of  a  flat  before  a  B  indicates  that  we  have 
to  do  with  a  transposed  piece.  The  flat  is  still  employed 
in  liturgical  music  to  avoid  in  certain  cases  juxtaposition 
of  F  and  B,  which  produces  the  interval  of  the  tritone,  that 
diabolus  in  musica,  the  bogey  of  the  middle  ages.  But 
the  mensuralists  are  less  fastidious.  Musica  ficta, 
apparently  a  result  of  the  needs  of  polyphonic  music, 
allows  more  numerous  modifications. 

The  B  may  be  flatted  when  a  descending  melodic 
movement  brings  it  together  with  an  F,  and,  generally, 
in  all  descending  melodic  passages.  Similarly,  though 
far  more  seldom,  the  E  requires  flatting  when  there  is 
danger  of  clashing  with  a  B  already  flatted  because  of  an 
F.  But  the  ambitus  of  a  trouvere  melody  is  never  suffi- 
ciently developed  to  extend  the  influence  of  this  lowering 
of  the  E  to  the  A  in  the  tetrachord  above;  I  have  never 
found  an  instance  of  a  flatted  A. 

But  musica  ficta  made  many  other  ravages  on  the  old 
tonality.  It  introduced  a  notion  which,  one  would 
think,  should  never  have  intruded — that  of  the  leading- 
note.  Except  in  tritos,  the  interval  below  the  final  in 


148       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Gregorian  music  was  always  a  whole  tone;  whereas  the 
semitone  is  characteristic  of  the  modern  major  and  minor. 

It  was  in  the  secular  works  at  the  time  of  Philip 
Augustus,  Louis  IX,  and  Philip  the  Fair,  that  this 
revolution  was  accomplished.  The  last  note  of  the 
melodies  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  required  a 
preceding  semitone,  instead  of  the  conventional  whole 
tone.  So  we  get,  in  the  first  tone,  a  C  sharp  and  G  sharp 
before  D  and  A;  in  the  third  tone,  E  and  B  natural 
before  F  and  C;  and  in  the  tetrardos,  F  sharp  before  G. 
These  three  sharps,  F,  C  and  G,  and  no  more,  are  found 
in  thirteenth-century  musica  ficta;  which  explains  the 
absence  of  the  authentic  and  plagal  deuteros,  which 
would  require  the  two  sharps  unknown  to  musica  ficta, 
D  and  A. 

But  more  important  still,  we  can  establish  the  existence 
of  another  use  of  the  sharp  and  flat,  arising  from  a 
phenomenon  familiar  in  musicology,  namely,  attraction. 
This  is  the  tendency  of  certain  notes  in  an  ascending 
melodic  movement  to  rise  above,  and  of  descending  notes 
to  fall  below,  their  normal  degree,  owing  to  the  at- 
traction of  the  note  above  or  below. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  this  attraction  occurs  only  in 
the  case  of  notes  susceptible  to  alteration.  The  most 
prominent  instance  is  the  chorda  mobilis  above  all 
others,  B.  Gregorian  music  had  already  admitted  this 
irregularity,  and  measured  music  adopted  it  as  regular. 
Then  there  are  F,  often  sharped  in  successions  like 
D-E-F#-G,  and  natural  in  the  reverse  order;  C, 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     149 

sharp  in  A— D-C#— D,  etc.,  and  natural  in  the  reverse 
order;  and  G,  sharp  in  E-F#— G#-A,  etc.,  which 
becomes  A-G^-Fij-E  when  descending.  Putting  theo- 
retical speculation  aside,  we  will  state  more  simply, 
that  the  general  ambitus  of  *  measured'  melody  keeps 
within  strict  limits,  and  that  instead  of  proceeding 
through  a  cycle  of  fifths  by  conjunct  degrees,  as  in  modern 
theory,  it  advances  through  a  chain  of  fourths  by  similar- 
ly conjunct  degrees: 

_^ j^"""-^  ^~^ 

"^    .  i ..  i  i  i  i  J  »j  •r'T-g-  r  **r  r  i  r  r  r  r  | 


r  *r 


.     _  _ 

j.  <  r    r  r 

These  innovations  of  musica  ficta  in  the  thirteenth 
century  clearly  prepared  the  way  for  the  modern  major 
and  minor  scales.  The  accomplishment  of  this  transforma- 
tion, which  is  intimately  blended  with  almost  the  entire 
range  of  musical  history,  is  the  result  of  secular  influence. 
IVJusical  language  has  been  evolved  like  human  speech, 
and  just  as  the  latter  developed  under  the  guidance  of 
wellnigh  fixed  phonetical  laws  that  allowed  no  fortuitous 
changes,  so  the  evolution  of  music  shows  the  existence 
of  laws  which  are  none  the  less  real  because  they  are 
still  obscure  and  ill  understood. 

I  showed  above  which  of  the  old  tonalities  of  liturgi- 
cal music  were  retained  by  measured  music.  With  these, 
two  groups  were  constituted,  with  this  result:  In  the  one 


150       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

we  have  the  two  forms  of  protos,  the  tones  on  D  and  A; 
in  the  other,  a  combination  of  the  authentic  tritos,  plagal 
tritos  and  authentic  tetrardos,  that  is,  the  tones  on  F,  C 
and  G.  Let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  modern  theory 
of  music,  in  which  the  function  of  modal  notes  is  well 
known.  They  are  the  third  and  sixth  degrees  of  the 
scale;  according  as  they  form  a  major  or  minor  third  or 
sixth  with  the  tonic,  the  scale  to  which  they  belong  is 
major  or  minor.  Coming  back  to  our  mensural  tonalities, 
we  find  that  the  scales  in  the  first  group,  on  D  and  A,  have 
a  minor  third  above  the  tonic  (D-F  and  A— C),  and 
a  minor  sixth,  D— Bb  and  A— F),  thus  being,  through 
not  less  than  four  centuries  of  gradual  evolution,  the 
prototype  of  the  modern  minor.  The  scales  in  the 
second  group,  on  F,  C  and  G,  have  a  major  third  above 
the  tonic  (F-A,  C-E,  G-B)  and  a  major  sixth  (F-D, 
C-A,  G-E),  giving  us  a  very  near  equivalent  to  the 
modern  major  scale. 

This  theory  of  the  origin  of  major  and  minor  is,  I  be- 
lieve, new,  and  has  not  yet  passed  the  ordeal  of  minute 
criticism.  But  it  is  not  without  interest  to  look  for  some 
historical  origin  of  modern  technique  side  by  side 
with  the  usual  acoustical  theories  of  the  formation  of 
the  scale. 

For  the  rhythmical  system  the  theoreticians  of  the 
ars  mensurabilis  are  quite  trustworthy  guides,  and  it  is 
only  necessary  to  reproduce  the  information  they  give, 
while  in  dealing  with  the  tones  I  have  had  to  examine  in 
detail  the  works  of  the  trouveres  and  troubadours  in 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     151 

order  to  extract  the  general  deductions  given  above. 
With  a  change  of  subject,  the  method  must  be  changed. 

2.     THE  MEASURED  RHYTHM  OF  THE  THIRTEENTH 
CENTURY 

Even  in  the  classical  period,  when  the  despotism  of 
harmonic  laws  was  at  its  height,  the  composer  enjoyed 
complete  independence  in  the  matter  of  rhythm.  This 
freedom  has  steadily  expanded  ever  since;  declamation, 
supplanting  the  formally  restricted  melodic  phrase,  has 
taken  the  place  of  accent,  and  the  bar,  often  a  super- 
annuated relic,  possesses  a  merely  conventional  value 
in  our  present  notation,  without  effect  on  the  execution. 
Hence,  we  are  all  the  less  fit  to  appreciate  the  mental 
attitude  of  the  thirteenth-century  mensuralists,  whose 
narrow  doctrines,  imprisoning  the  musician  in  the  meshes 
of  rules  and  formulae,  almost  completely  paralysed 
freedom  of  rhythmical  conception.  Mensural  theory 
offered  to  a  composer's  inspiration  a  choice  of  six  forms 
of  rhythm,  merely  conceding  the  right  to  expand  or 
contract  them  according  to  the  necessities  of  composition. 
Such  was  the  medieval  principle.  Musicians  at  the 
time  of  Saint  Louis  thought  there  was  a  formal  science 
of  melodic  outline,  just  as  we  to-day  admit  the  existence 
of  science  and  rules  for  the  construction  of  a  harmonic 
edifice. 

Musicologists  have  not  invariably  thrown  sufficient 
light  on  these  ideas.  Coussemaker  made  a  minute 
study  of  the  Motets  in  the  Montpellier  Library,  about 


152       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

1860,  and  transcribed  and  scored  in  modern  notation 
fifty  compositions  from  this  collection;  yet  he  failed  to 
observe  that  all  the  melodies  conformed  exactly  to  a 
very  limited  number  of  rhythmical  formulae,  without 
any  deviation. 

Dr.  Hugo  Riemann,  the  learned  historian  of  music, 
an  authority  of  weight  beyond  the  Rhine,  could  read  the 
musical  products  of  the  middle  ages  only  by  the  light  of 
his  general  rhythmical  system,  claiming  to  reconcile 
every  melodic  phrase  to  a  uniform  four-cornered  type, 
that  is,  four  measures  in  a  phrase,  and  four  beats  in  a 
measure.  This  paradox  places  the  unfortunate  composer 
on  a  veritable  bed  of  Procrustes,  lengthening  his  melody 
when  the  line  is  too  short,  and  shortening  it  in  the 
opposite  case.  The  least  defect  of  Dr.  Riemann's 
system  is  that  it  makes  a  clean  sweep  of  all  medieval 
theoretical  works,  and  usurps  their  place  in  its  in- 
terpretation of  the  compositions  of  that  time. 

As  for  myself,  I  long  wavered  between  the  two  extremes 
of  Coussemaker  and  Riemann,  dissatisfied  with  both. 
The  transcriptions  which  I  made  two  years  ago  reflect 
this  uncertainty.  When  preparing  an  edition  of  the 
fine  Bamberg  Collection  of  Motets  in  the  Spring  of  1907, 
I  had  occasion  to  make  a  critical  study  of  the  chief 
text,  the  Montpellier  Manuscript.  It  was  then  that  I 
perceived  that  the  rhythms  of  all  these  motets  were 
reducible  to  a  few  formulae,  corresponding  to  the  rhyth- 
mical modes  enumerated  by  the  theorists,  and  that 
any  formula  adopted  in  a  work  was  employed  from 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     153 

beginning  to  end.  Now,  in  old  Motet  MSS.,  and  in  those 
which  contain  the  songs  of  the  trouveres,  the  notation 
does  not  include  indications  of  rhythm;  in  the  Mont- 
pellier  manuscript  the  rhythmical  notation  is  still  un- 
certain: this  brought  me  to  the  conclusion  that  in 
documents  of  this  time  the  rhythm  is  intrinsic,  that  is 
to  say,  latent;  it  exists,  but  the  notation  does  not  reveal 
it.  To  establish  this  truth,  I  had  recourse  to  the  follow- 
ing line  of  reasoning,  very  much  after  the  manner  of  a 
syllogism. 

The  problem  is  this:  The  notation  of  the  melodies  of 
the  trouveres  does  not  mark  the  rhythm;  are  these 
melodies  really  measured?  Kiemann  says  not;  or,  at  least, 
he  considers  that  they  can  all  be  reduced  to  his  system. 

Against  this  assertion  I  would  venture  on  another; 
the  trouvere  melodies  are  measured,  just  as  motets  and 
polyphonic  compositions  of  the  same  period  are  measured. 

Indeed,  some  manuscripts1  contain  monodic  songs, 
and  motets  in  several  parts,  written  by  the  same  hand 
with  the  same  system  of  notation,  the  rhythm  alone 
not  being  graphically  expressed. 

Now,  motets  in  other  manuscripts  are  undoubtedly 
measured;  they  are  therefore  no  less  measured  even  where 
the  notation  affords  no  indication;  so  the  trouvere 
melodies  found  side  by  side  with  the  motets  are  measured, 
too,  for  the  notation  is  the  same  for  both. 

Let  C  stand  for  the  manuscripts  of  motets  in  which 
the  Franconian  notation  is  clearly  measured. 

1  Paris,  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  French  MSS.  844  and  12615. 


154        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

Let  B  stand  for  the  motets  in  a  composite  manuscript, 
where  the  old-fashioned  notation  does  not  indicate 
the  rhythm. 

Let  A  stand  for  the  trouvere  melodies  in  this  com- 
posite manuscript.  Then  we  get: 

A=B,  B  =  C,  A  =  C 

or,  in  plain  language,  (a)  the  trouvere  and  troubadour 
melodies  are  measured;  (6)  they  are  measured  on  the 
same  principle  as  the  thirteenth-century  motets.1 

The  fundamental  principles  of  this  rhythm  may  now 
be  explained;  they  shall  furnish  the  justification  for 
certain  transcriptions  already  encountered  in  this  work. 

The  inspiration  of  musicians  in  measured  music  is  not 
unfettered  in  its  rhythmical  conceptions;  every  melody 
must  conform  to  one  of  six  recognised  "modes."  The 
"Mode,"  modus,  or  maneries,  is  a  rhythmical  formula,  re- 
peated as  often  as  necessary  throughout  a  composition. 

The  first  "mode"  (the  classical  trochee  adapted  to 
medieval  music)  is  made  up  of  two  elements,  a  long  of 
two  beats,  and  a  short  of  one.2 

3    J        J      |  J         J      |   J         J      |  J          etc. 

_    Each  of  these  elements  corresponds  to  a  syllable,  and 
except  in  special  cases  of  expansion  or  contraction,  each 

1  This  theory  of  rhythm,  which  we  owe  to  M.  Job.  Beck,  and 
which  I  had  sketched  in  my  Rythmique  musicale  des  trouveres,  has 
been  amplified  by  M.  Beck  in  his  Die  Melodien  der  Troubadours,  etc. 
While  accepting  the  principle  and  the  fundamental  rules  laid  down 
by  M.  Beck,  I  cannot  reconcile  myself  to  his  views  on  certain  points, 
such  as  the  interchange  of  rhythms  in  the  same  composition,  and 
the  substitution  of  6-4  for  3-4  in  the  third  "mode." 

2  Half  and  quarter-notes  are  used  here,  bwt  of  course  any  other 
proportionate  values  are  equally  permissible. 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     155 

formula  of  the  first  mode  should  contain  two  syllables, 
no  more  and  no  less. 

The  second  is  the  reverse  of  the  first;  a  short,  followed 
by  a  long,  like  the  iambus  of  classical  prosody: 


|3  j    1 3 


etc. 


In  this  connection  we  do  not  accept  the  reading  of 
certain  German  prodosists  (Walter  Niemann,  Hugo  Rie- 
mann,  etc.),  who  treat  this  iambic  rhythm  as  trochaic, 
and  change  the  second  "mode"  into  a  variation,  by 
anacrusis,  of  the  first: 


J  |3   J  |3   J  |3    J  |3 


etc. 


This  theory  confuses  two  modes,  each  of  which  has  its 
own  rhythmical  ethos;  it  is,  moreover,  wholly  at  variance 
with  the  practice  observed  in  thirteenth-century  meas- 
ured music,  where  we  find  the  first  "mode"  both  simply 
and  in  anacrusis,  side  by  side  with  examples  of  the  second 
"mode"  which  are  unquestionably  iambic.  Further,  this 
theory  conflicts  with  the  principle  of  medieval  measured 
music  which  demands  that  the  rhyme-syllable  and 
strong  beat  of  the  rhythm  shall  coincide  at  the  end  of  a 
line. 

As  in  the  first  "mode,"  each  formula  of  the  second 
should  comprise  two  text-syllables,  and,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  no  more. 

The    third   "mo(}e"   is   made   up   of  three   elements: 


156        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

(a)  a  long  of  three  beats,  (b)  a  short  of  one  beat,  and 
(c)  a  short  of  two  beats: 

i  J-  J  J  |j-  J  J  |j-  J  j  |j-  .,.. 

One  syllable  corresponds  to  each  element,  that  is  to 
say,  one  formula  in  the  third  "mode"  contains  three 
syllables. 

The  fourth  "mode"  is  a  inversion  of  the  third,  as  the 
second  is  of  the  first;  comprising  (a)  a  short  of  one  beat, 
(6)  a  short  of  two  beats,  and  (c)  a  long  of  three  beats: 


2  J  J  J-  |J  J  J-  |J  J 


etc. 


The  observations  made  on  the  second  "mode"  apply  to 
the  fourth.  The  third  is  a  corruption  of  the  old  dactyl, 
adopted  by  thirteenth-century  writers  as  a  formula  in 
ternary  rhythm,  just  as  the  fourth  is  a  corruption  of  the 
anapest,  the  opposite  of  the  dactyl. 

The  fifth  "mode"  consists  merely  of  longs  of  three  beats: 

I    J-      |      J-     I      J-      |      J-      etc. 

The  last  "mode,"  the  sixth,  is  conspicuous  for  being 
made  up  of  shorts  and  "half -shorts :" 

1    J    J    J     |J    J>'J     J>'J     |J      etc. 

The  use  of  the  last  three  "modes"  is,  however,  very 
rare.  No  examples  of  the  fifth  have  survived;  there  are 
some  very  doubtful  specimens  of  the  fourth :  and  some  of 
the  compositions  here  transcribed  in  the  third  may  really 
belong  to  the  sixth. 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     157 

This  limited  choice  of  rhythmical  formulae  must  have 
caused  intolerable  sameness,  especially  since  no  change 
of  "mode"  was  allowed  from  one  end  of  a  work  to  the 
other. 

Means  of  relief  from  this  monotony  were  found  to  a 
certain  extent;  the  use  of  equivalents  helped  to  vary 
the  interminable  procession  of  shorts  and  longs.  This 
equalisation,  equipollentia,  sanctioned  the  substitution 
of  two  or  three  notes  of  the  same  total  duration  for  one 
long  one. 

So  the  formula  of  the  first  "mode"  (a  long  of  two  beats 
and  a  short  of  one)  could  be  split  up  into  figures  of  the 
same  value,  giving  the  following  rhythmical  equivalents: 


And  so  throughout,  the  third  "mode"  offering  such 
variations  as  these: 

«  J.  JJ  |=J77JJ  |.UffJjjj|.J.  JffJSfJ1* 

These  variations  do  not  affect  the  number  of  the 
elements  of  the  formula  or  the  number  of  syllables, 
though  the  number  of  notes  assigned  to  an  element  or 
syllable  is  of  course  increased. 

The  form  of  a  verse,  that  is,  the  form  of  the  lines  of 
which  it  is  composed,  has  an  important  bearing  on  the 
modus  of  its  accompanying  melody.  During  the  gradual 
formalisation  of  measured  music  in  the  middle  ages 
musicians  found  corroboration  of  contemporary  advance 
in  the  rich  store  of  Gregorian  melodies  handed  down 


158       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

V 

through  past  centuries.  The  Christian  Church  adapts 
the  free  rhythm  of  its  own  melodies  to  the  Latin  prose 
of  the  sacred  texts;  this  free  rhythm  of  the  Gregorian 
numbers  is,  in  a  sense,  musical  prose,  the  theory  of 
uniformity  of  notes  accentuating  this  characteristic. 
But  composers,  starting  from  this  point,  soon  found  that 
the  adaptation  of  melodies  to  systems  of  versification 
rigidly  syllabic — where  the  verses  contained  lines  of 
fixed  length,  as  part  of  a  definite  scheme  laid  down  by  the 
poet — necessitated  due  respect  to  metrical  form  in  de- 
fault of  violating  the  poet's  rhythmical  conception.  So 
the  measured  rhythm  of  the  middle  ages,  that  is,  the 
code  of  laws  governing  the  union  of  poetical  with  musical 
texts,  assigned  to  each  syllable  of  a  line  of  the  poem  a  fixed 
value  in  the  corresponding  element  of  the  rhythmical 
formula,  unalterable  save  for  occasional  exceptions. 

A  posteriori  methods  have  made  it  possible  to  extract 
the  most  important  of  these  laws  from  the  compositions 
themselves;  I  offer  them  here  as  "articles  of  faith,"  in 
their  simplest  form.  Their  observance  in  the  thirteenth 
century  seems  to  have  been  a  matter  of  course,  requiring 
no  formulation  or  commentary  from  theoretical  writers; 
the  probable  explanation  is  that  composers  and  singers 
and  poets  instinctively  conformed  to  them. 

I.  In  every  case  and  in  every   "mode"  the  tonic 
syllable  of  the  rhyme  must  fall  on  the  strong  beat  of  a 
measure,   or,   in  the   terminology   of  measured   music, 
on  the  first  element  of  the  modal  formula. 

II.  When  the  rhyme  is  feminine  (i.  e.y  when  an  atonic 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURA     159 

syllable  follows  the  tonic  syllable  of  the  rhyme),  this 
atonic  syllable  usually  falls  on  the  second  element  in  the 
first  and  second  "modes,"  and  on  the  second  and  third 
in  the  third  "mode." 

III.  In  the  first  or  second  "mode,"  coincidence  be- 
tween the  strong  beat  and  the  tonic  syllable  takes  place 
only  in  lines  composed  of  an  uneven  number  of  syllables, 
the  atonic  syllable  of  lines  with  feminine  endings  being, 
of  course,  outside  this  category. 

IV.  To  get  this  coincidence  in  these  "modes,"  where 
the  line  contains  an  even  number  of  syllables,  the  follow- 
ing expedients  are  adopted:   (a)   anacrusis,  that  is,  an 
extra  additional  (hypermetric)  syllable;  (6)  extension  of      w\i 
an  inner  syllable  over  two  elements;  or,  (c)  division  of 

a  long  note  into  two  shorts. 

V.  A.  verse  composed  of  lines  of  five,  six,  seven,  eight, 
nine,    or    eleven   syllables   is    naturally    adapted    to   a 

^  O  \^          .  J  fj 

melody  in  the  first  or  second  "mode." 

VI.  When  the  ligatures,   or  groups   of  notes  in  a 
melodic  phrase,  occur  mostly  on  syllables  that  correspond 
to  the  first  element  of  the  formula*,  the  melody  appears  to 
belong  to  the  first  "mode." 

On  the  other  hand,  when  they  occur  on  syllables  cor- 
responding to  the  second  element  of  the  formula,  the 
melody  may  be  taken  as  belonging  to  the  second  "mode." 

VII.  The  strophe  of  a  song  composed  of  decasyllabic 
or  heptasyllabic  lines,  with   a  caesura  after  the  fourth 
Syllable,  or  containing  intermingled  quadrisyllable  lines, 
usually  requires  a  melody  in  the  third  "mode." 


160       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

VIII.  There  are  some  important  rules  governing 
the  relations  of  melodic  phrases  in  the  middle  of  the 
verse,  but  as  these  are  too  numerous  and  complicated 
to  be  reproduced  without  illustration,  reference  may 
be  made  to  a  recent  publication  wherein  they  are  fully 


created.1 


The  laws  described  above  are  the  fundamentals  of 
medieval  measured  rhythm.  This  theory  of  rhythm  is 
based  on  the  aesthetic  idea  so  successfully  exploited  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  that  a  melody 
allied  to  words  must  be  founded  on  a  lyrical  text.  The 
early  medievals,  who  saw  the  growth  of  the  liturgical 
repertoire,  had  admitted  the  principle  of  a  musical 
setting  of  a  Latin  prose  text,  and  with  it  the  existence  of 
free  rhythm.  But  from  the  twelfth  century  onward  the 
invasion  of  syllabic  or  metrical  poetry  sweeps  all  before 
it,  and,  as  a  logical  outcome  of  a  system  of  versification 
in  which  each  syllable  is  carefully  counted,  demands 
measured  melody  and  musical  phrases  that  shall  re- 
produce the  contour  of  the  verse  to  which  they  are 
set.  This  invasion  affects  not  only  profane,  but  also 
liturgical  music,  and  the  barriers  of  the  old  Gregorian 
theory  are  broken  down  by  the  new  developments  in 
secular  music. 

The  measured  music  of  the  thirteenth  century  contains 
the  principal  modern  types  in  embryo:  simple  triple 
time  (3-4  3-8  3-2);  compound  duple  time  (6-4  6-8  6-2); 

1  Pierre  Aubry,  Cent  Motets  du  xine  siecle:  III,  p.  129  et  seq. 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     161 

and  very  rarely,  though  examples  exist,  simple  duple 
time  (2-4) .  These  types  are,  of  course,  merely  provisional, 
being  recast  as  soon  as  they  are  formed,  and  Philip  de 
Vitry 's  remodelling  of  the  rhythmical  system  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century  was  the  first  stage  of  an 
evolution  which  is  still  in  progress  at  the  present  time. 
The  most  modern  phase  offers  a  strange  spectacle. 
Contemporary  music,  while  utilising  the  rich  treasure 
acquired  in  the  course  of  development  on  secular  lines, 
has  been  persuaded  by  certain  of  its  composers,  many 
of  them  highly  gifted,  to  take  an  occasional  glance 
backward,  so  far,  in  fact,  that  it  has  passed  the  mensural- 
ists  and  reached  the  Gregorian  age,  which  now  finds  itself 
the  inspiring  genius  of  twentieth-century  music.  What 
was  said  above  of  tonality  is  equally  true  of  rhythm.  Since 
the  Renaissance,  the  theories  of  the  mensuralists  and 
writers  on  the  ars  nova  have  been  accepted  as  a  heritage, 
but  just  at  the  present  moment  it  is  the  rhythmical 
freedom  of  Gregorians  that  is  reflected  in  the  composi- 
tions of  many  distinguished  French  composers.  In 
many  pages  of  modern  music  the  bar  is  simply  a  matter  of 
convenience  and  has  no  effect  on  the  rhythm,  or  it  is 
made  meaningless  through  constant  change  of  time- 
signature;  so  much  so  that,  but  for  the  Gregorian  prin- 
ciple of  the  indivisibility  of  the  Gregorian  tempus 
primus,  we  should  find  a  striking  similarity  in  the 
rhythmical  inspiration  of  two  musicians  separated  by 
fourteen  centuries  of  history.  It  would  seem  that  the 
foundation  of  novelty  is  the  obsolete. 


162  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

3.    THE  NOTATION  OF  THE  TROUBADOURS  AND 
TROUVERES 

The  notation  is  familiar  to  us  from  manuscripts  quoted 
in  the  course  of  this  work,  but  its  rhythmical  sig- 
nificance was  mysterious  and  puzzling  until  M.  Beck 
solved  the  problem  with  his  "modal  interpretation," 
a  solution  accepted  by  the  present  author.  Since, 
according  to  the  melodic  modus,  each  syllable  of  a  line 
had  its  rhythmical  value,  determined  before  ever  the 
composer  set  out  to  write  his  music  (thus,  the  fourth 
syllable  of  a  decasyllabic  line  is  good  for  three  beats, 
the  fifth  syllable  for  one  beat,  the  sixth  for  two  beats), 
and  since  an  almost  absolute  fixity  suppressed  rhythmical 
freewill,  it  was  not  indispensable  that  the  notation  should 
define  the  time- values  of  the  notes;  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
these  indications  are  wanting  in  nearly  all  the  manuscripts 
that  have  survived. 

On  examining  the  facsimile  of  a  page  of  a  trouvere  song 
(facing  page  20),  it  will  be  seen  that  all  single  notes 
have  the  same  shape — a  square  head  with  a  down-stem 
on  the  right.  There  are  groups  of  two,  three  and  four 
notes,  but  the  shape  of  these  ligatures  is  of  no  importance 
in  itself,  since  the  total  value  of  the  notes  which  form  the 
group  is  known  beforehand.  This  notation  is  before  all 
things  melodic;  it  is  diastematic,  and  this  characteristic 
is  indispensable;  for  though  the  old  neumatic  notation 
without  a  staff  sufficed  as  an  aid  to  memory  in  the  case 
of  melodies  already  familiar,  like  those  in  the  liturgical 
repertory,  these  new  melodies  of  the  troubadours  and 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     163 

trouveres  required  a  caligraphy  that  could  at  once  fix 
the  position  in  the  scale  occupied  by  each  note.  Up  to 
this  point  the  notation  of  the  manuscript  suffices.  Its 
weakness  lies  in  its  inability  to  express  time-values. 

General  knowledge  of  measured  rhythm  served  partly 
to  supply  the  missing  details,  but  contemporary  writers 
were  alive  to  this  deficiency  and  sought  a  remedy.  They 
found  one  immediately  by  making  a  distinction  between 
the  signs  for  a  long  and  a  short,  keeping  the  long  as 
before  (a  square  with  a  down-stem  on  the  right)  and 
using  a  plain  square  for  the  short.  But  in  this  second 
period  of  the  notation  of  measured  music,  represented 
by  sections  II-VI  of  the  Montpellier  Manuscript,  or  the 
Manuscript  "Chansonnier  frangais  846"  in  the  National 
Library  in  Paris,  the  shape  of  the  ligatures  is  still  a 
matter  of  indifference. 

The  last  improvements  in  the  notation  of  measured 
music,  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  were  the 
work  of  Franco  of  Cologne.  The  groups  or  ligatures, 
each  note  of  which  had  its  definite  value,  were  given  an 
equally  definite  sign  to  express  them,  and  were  subjected 
to  the  bizarre  rules  of  proprietors,  improprietas,  and  opposita 
proprietors.  In  practice  these  classifications  existed  long 
before  Franco's  time :  his  task  was  to  codify  a  medley  of 
rules  and  incorporate  them  as  a  methodical  system. 

The  thirteenth-century  notation  had  many  drawbacks, 
the  most  serious  being  that,  designed  as  it  was  to  express 
in  writing  the  time-values  of  a  musical  system  in  which 
ternary  rhythm  was  a  fundamental  principle,  it  was  not 


1 64  TROU VfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

fitted  to  express  the  division  of  one  beat  into  two  parts. 
There  are  certainly  a  few  examples  in  which  two  equal 
breves  take  the  place  of  a  longa,  but  these  are  clearly  ex- 
ceptions, and  writers  on  the  ars  mensurabilis  make  no 
mention  of  this  division  of  one  beat  into  two. 

Hence  it  came  about  that  when  (after  1325)  the  new 
theory  of  the  ars  nova  had  gained  a  firm  hold  upon 
musicians  and  amateurs,  the  old-fashioned  notation  of  the 
preceding  period  was  promptly  discarded;  when  binary 
rhythm  had  regained  its  proper  position  in  music,  from 
which  it  had  been  ousted  by  the  extra-musical  specu- 
lations of  theologians  and  philosophers,  a  reconstruction 
of  notation  was  bound  to  accompany  theoretical  reform. 
Yet  the  transition  from  the  square  notation  of  the 
thirteenth  century  to  that  of  the  ars  nova  in  the  succeed- 
ing century  can  be  followed  as  easily  as  the  evolution 
of  the  square  notation  from  the  old  neumes.  In  the 
ars  nova  there  were  two  values  shorter  than  the  semi- 
breve  of  the  mensuralists  and  quite  unknown  to  these 
writers,  namely,  the  minima  and  the  semiminima,  pro- 
totypes of  the  modern  crotchet  and  quaver.  The  fifteenth 
century  eliminated  the  inner  portion  of  these  notes, 
preserving  their  contour,  and  so,  if  we  go  back,  step  by 
step,  from  modern  notation  to  the  Renaissance,  from 
the  Renaissance  to  the  ars  nova  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  and  from  the  ars  nova  to  the  measured 
music  of  the  mensuralists,  we  join  hands  with  the  middle 
ages,  the  ultimate  source  of  all  contemporary  music. 

The  brevis  of  the  mensuralists,  retained  in  the  fourteenth 


MENSURAL  THEORY,  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY     165 

and  fifteenth  centuries,  but  transformed  by  the  "white" 
notation,  became  the  maxima  in  Renaissance  music. 

Similarly,  the  semibrevis  is  the  ancestor  of  the  modern 
semibreve. 

From  the  minima  came  our  minim  and  crotchet,  while 
the  semiminima  is  the  prototype  of  our  quaver,  semi- 
quaver, etc. 


CONCLUSION 

In  the  foregoing  pages  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
summarise  my  previous  researches  concerning  the  be- 
ginnings of  French  music  at  the  time  of  the  troubadours 
and  trouveres;  addressing  myself  to  those  lovers  of  music 
who  do  not  care  to  worry  themselves  with  heavy  treatises 
overweighted  with  notes  and  references,  but  who  com- 
bine a  taste  for  their  art  with  a  healthy  curiosity  as  to  all 
that  goes  to  form  a  part  of  their  intellectual  patrimony. 

That  France  was  the  educator  of  the  Western  world 
in  medieval  history  is  well  known,  but  it  is  not  so  well 
known  that  French  music  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  was  the  accepted  model  of  all  European  music, 
and  that  in  music,  as  in  many  other  branches  of  art, 
other  nations  are  tributaries  of  France's  creative  genius. 
Measured  music  took  root  in  the  heart  of  this  country: 
it  was  in  Paris  that  it  first  came  into  being  towards  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century,  it  was  the  musicians  of 
Notre-Dame  who  formulated  its  rules  at  about  the  same 
time,  and  it  was  during  the  reign  of  Saint  Louis  that 
French  music,  through  the  teaching  of  its  masters  and 
their  work  preserved  in  manuscripts,  spread  its  influence 
far  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  realm. 

The  few  documents  bearing  on  the  history  of  music  in 
England  during  the  same  period  give  ample  proof  of 


CONCLUSION  167 

French  influences.  The  Norman  Kings,  who  replaced  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Kings  after  the  battle  of  Hastings  (1066), 
brought  the  French  language  to  England;  lyrical  poetry, 
as  far  as  can  be  judged  from  specimens  which  have 
survived,  flourished  on  English  soil;  music  also  prospered; 
two  monks,  Walter  Odington,  a  Benedictine  monk  of 
Evesham,  and  Amerus,  wrote  treatises  on  the  ars  men- 
surabilis  on  the  lines  of  the  French  theorists. 

The  Minnesdnger  of  Germany,  though  their  language 
was  old  German,  were,  musically,  tributaries  to  the 
same  influence.  Franco  of  Cologne  may  not  be  Franco 
of  Paris,  he  may  have  written  by  the  banks  of  the  Rhine 
and  not  on  the  lie  de  France,  but  his  theories  merely 
summarise  the  principles  that  emanated  from  the  cloisters 
of  Notre-Dame,  fifty  or  sixty  years  before;  the  examples 
he  quotes  and  the  motets  he  illustrates,  proclaim  his 
learning  to  be  wholly  Parisian,  and  he  is  not  the  only 
subject  of  the  Holy  Empire  who  went  to  France  for  his 
artistic  equipment. 

Of  Italian  music  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
but  little  is  known;  though  definitely  national  character- 
istics are  hard  to  find  in  it,  the  Italian  troubadours  cer- 
tainly imitated  their  Provengal  confreres,  and  French 
compositions  were  highly  popular  in  Italy,  as  shown  by 
a  perusal  of  the  manuscripts  of  French  lyrical  poetry 
made  by  the  Italians  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen. 

But  it  is  in  Spain  that  this  influence  is  chiefly  manifest. 
Without  entering  into  a  critical  study  of  the  Spanish 


168       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

troubadours,  Galician  or  Catalonian,  we  may  recall  the 
name  of  one,  conspicuous  amongst  his  distinguished 
fellows,  Alfonso  the  Wise,1  the  author  of  the  Cantigas  de 
Santa  Maria,  written  in  the  Galician  dialect.  Alfonso 
was  a  musician  of  the  French  school.  King  of  Castile 
from  1252  to  1284,  he  welcomed  the  presence  of  trouba- 
dours at  his  court,  among  them  being  Guiraut  Riquier.  It 
was  at  that  time  that  manuscripts  of  French,  even 
Parisian  origin,  such  as  the  volumen  discantuum  which  I 
unearthed  at  Madrid,  crossed  the  Pyrenees  to  introduce 
the  works  of  our  master-musicians  to  the  great  cathe- 
drals of  Spain. 

It  must  be  allowed,  then,  that  French  music  enjoyed 
the  reputation  of  recognised  supremacy  in  the  Western 
civilisation  of  the  thirteenth  century.  This  can  be  better 
realised  if  we  are  self-confident  enough  to  ask  no  more 
of  these  melodies  than  they  can  give,  and  to  treat  them 
purely  objectively. 

What  we  must  not  expect  to  find  in  medieval  music, 
particularly  that  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres,  is 
all  that  subsequent  progress  and  development  have 
added  since  the  time  of  Saint  Louis.  But  what  still 
lives  and  counts  in  this  music  is  the  naivete  and  the  grace 
of  youth.  The  melodic  ideas  of  the  troubadours  and 
trouveres  are  simple,  and  their  means  of  expression 
humble.  But  the  ideas  are  charming,  and  we  can  listen 
to  them  with  pleasure.  I  have  spoken  of  the  poverty  of 
1  their  rhythmical  formulas,  but  have  hardly  done  justice 

1  Alfonso  X  of  Castile  (d.  1284),  named  "El  Sabio"  (The  Wise). 


CONCLUSION  169 

to  the  variety  of  effects  made  possible  to  the  composers 
by  the  multiplicity  of  scales;  modern  music,  mostly  con- 
cerned with  major  and  minor  scales,  has  in  this  respect 
fewer  resources.  Though  there  is  a  certain  nobility  in 
the  troubadour  melodies,  worthy  of  imitation,  the 
rhythmical  scheme  is  less  satisfactory :  it  gives  us  no  free 
speech  in  music,  but  brings  us  too  near  to  the  formalities  of 
Adam,  Herold,  Boieldieu,  the  Dame  Blanche,  Zampa,  the 
Chalet — in  fact,  the  type  of  opera  popular  in  the  sixties. 

I  would  almost  venture  on  the  formula — no  better  and  no 

^ 

worse  than  all  formulae  which  claim  to  summarise  an 
aesthetic  judgment — that  a  troubadour  or  trouvere 
melody  is  of  equal  musical  value  with  an  air  out  of  an 
old-fashioned  comedy-opera  sung  without  an  accompani- 
ment. 

Some  would  advance  this  as  a  reason  for  not  dis- 
turbing the  slumbers  of  these  medieval  melodies'  in  the 
manuscripts  that  enshroud  them.  But  there  are  two  very 
good  reasons  for  the  opposite  course.  The  first  is,  that 
the  melodies  of  the  troubadours  and  trouvere^  are  among 
the  most  ancient  landmarks  of  French  music,  and,  as  such, 
enable  us  to  explore  to  the  very  source  of  our  present-day 
theory  of  music  and  to  understand  many  peculiarities 
of  modern  notation  and  tonality  that  would  otherwise 
remain  unintelligible. 

The  second  reason  takes  us  somewhat  beyond  the 
scope  of  music.  A  complete  grasp  of  the  lyrical  poetry 
of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  is  impossible  without 
taking  into  account  the  melodic  element  allied  to  it, 


170       TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

and  the  most  learned  research  of  philologians  must  be 
incomplete  when  this  essential  is  neglected.  Historians 
of  literature  must  always  leave  a  part  of  their  task  undone 
if  they  forget  the  aphorism  of  the  old  troubadour, 
Folquet  of  Marseilles,  "A  verse  without  music  is  a  mill 
without  water." 

The  formula  is  happily  conceived;  it  should  earn  for 
the  troubadours  and  trouveres  a  place  to-day  among  the 
great  musicians  of  their  time,  if  not  of  ours. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I.— BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  MANUSCRIPTS 

Under  this  caption  we  indicate  the  sources  of  all  researches  into 
the  melodic  productions  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres.  These 
are  the  manuscripts  from  the  thirteenth  century  and  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  which  are  kept  in  public  libraries,  and  without 
which  no  original  research-work  can  be  undertaken. 

The  songs  of  troubadours,  together  with  their  musical  notation, 
are  found  in  the  following  MSS. 

PARIS,  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  f.  francais  22543 

844 
20050 

MILAN,  Ambrosiana  R,  71,  Sup. 

The  songs  of  trouveres,  also  with  the  musical  notation,  are 
found  in  the  MSS.  enumerated  below: 

ARRAS,  Bibliotheque,  ms.  657. 

LONDON,  British  Museum,  Egerton  MS.  274. 

PARIS,  Bibliotheque  de  1' Arsenal,  ms.  5198. 

Bibliotheque  Nationale,  f.  frangais        844. 

845. 
846. 
847. 
1591. 
12615. 
20050. 
24406. 

"     nouv.  acq.  franc..  1050. 
ROME,  Vatican  Library,  Christine  MS.  1490. 
SIENA,  Library,  MS.  H.X.  36. 

We  shall  not  conclude  the  bibliography  of  the  manuscripts  without 
mentioning  a  work  which,  although  intended  for  philological  re- 
search, is  of  the  greatest  assistance  to  musicologists;  namely, 

RAYNAUD,  GASTON.  Bibliographie  des  chansonniers  franqais  des 
xine  et  xive  siecles.  Paris,  1884,  2  vols.  8V0. 


II.— BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  THEORISTS 

The  treatises  of  theoreticians  on  the  Mensural  Music  of  the 
thirteenth  century  have  been  gathered  together  into  two  large 
collections: 


172  TROUVfiRES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

GERBERT,  MARTIN.  Seriptores  ecclesiastici  de  musica  sacra  po- 
tissimum  ex  variis  Italiae,  Galliae  et  Germaniae  codicibus  manuscriptis 
collecti.  Sankt  Blasien,  1784;  3  vols.  4to. 

DE  COUSSEMAKER,  Cn.-E.-H.  Scriptorum  de  musica  medii  aevi 
nova  series  a  gerbertina  altera.  Paris,  1864;  4  vols.  4to. 

These  two  collections  have  become  exceedingly  rare  in  the  book- 
trade;  new  editions  were  published  at  Gratz  in  1908. 

To  the  above  should  be  added  a  highly  important  treatise  by 

WOLF,  JOHANNES.  Die  Musiklehre  des  Johannes  de  Grocheo; 
published  in  the  "Sammelbande  der  Internationalen  Musikgesell- 
schaft,"  1889,  Heft  I. 


III.— CRITICAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Under  this  head  will  be  mentioned  the  principal  publications 
concerning  the  musical  history  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres. 
This  renders  it  unnecessary  to  enumerate  the  editions  of  these  poets; 
a  very  exact  list  may  be  found  in  Groeber's  Grundriss  der  romanischen 
Philologie,  a  new  edition  of  which  appeared  recently. 

LA  RAVALIERE  (DE).  Les  poesies  du  roi  de  Navarre  avec  des  notes 
et  un  glossaire  frangais.  Paris,  1742,  2  vols. 

DE  LABORDE.  Essai  sur  la  musique  ancienne  et  moderne.  Paris, 
1780;  Vol.  II. 

PERNE.  Chansons  du  Chdtelain  de  Coucy,  suivies  de  Vancienne 
musique,  mise  en  notation  moderne  avec  accompagnement  de  piano. 
Paris,  1830. 

DE  COUSSEMAKER,  E.  (Euvres  completes  du  trouvere  Adam  de  la 
Halle.  Paris,  1872,  4to. 

Coussemaker's  further  writings  have  to  do  with  polyphonic 
music;  but  useful  information  concerning  mensural  music  may  be 
found  in  his  Histoire  de  Vharmonie  au  moyen  age  (Paris,  1852)  and 
in  his  Art  harmonique  aux  xne  et  xme  siecles  (Paris,  1865-6). 

JACOBSTHAL,  G.  Die  Mensuralnotenschrift  des  12.-13.  Jahrhun- 
derts.  Berlin,  1871,  8V0. 

LAVOIX,  HENRI.  La  musique  au  siecle  de  saint  Louis,  an  Appen- 
dix to  the  Recueil  des  Motets  frangais  by  G.  Raynaud.  Paris,  1884; 
2  vols. 

It  will  cause  no  surprise  that  we  omit  to  mention  the  chapters 
relating  to  the  troubadours  and  trouveres  contained  in  the  various 
general  histories  of  music.  Everything  in  Fetis  is  to  be  rejected; 
nothing  in  Ambros  can  be  utilized. 

We  shall  now  take  up  a  series  of  studies  which  display  a  regard 
for  exactitude  and  a  critical  care  quite  unknown  to  the  earlier  works. 
Of  these  I  shall  cite  only  the  most  important.  Besides,  several  of 
them  have  already  found  mention  in  the  preceding  pages. 

TIERSOT,  JULIEN.  Histoire  de  la  chanson  populaire  en  France. 
Paris,  1889.  8™. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  173 

We  greatly  regret  having  forgotten  to  mention  this  remarkable 
book  in  our  first  edition.  At  certain  points  it  touches  the  secular 
musicology  of  the  middle  ages.  It  should  be  recalled,  that  two  of 
the  prettiest  chansons  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Bele  Yolanz  and 
A  Ventrada  del  terns  clar,  were  published  by  our  excellent  colleague 
in  1889  according  to  the  Chansonnier  de  Saint-Germain  des  Pres 
(see  below);  and  we  should  observe,  that  the  editor  at  that  time 
spoke  of  the  importance  attaching  to  the  melodies  of  the  trouveres 
for  the  history  of  modern  tonality  at  its  beginning.  Moreover,  and 
long  before  Hugo  Riemann,  M.  Tiersot  advanced  the  idea  that  it  is 
necessary  "to  bring  the  rhythm  of  the  music  purely  and  simply  into 
conformity  with  that  of  the  verses  in  order  to  discover,  beneath  an 
imperfect  notation,  the  original  rhythms  of  the  melodies  of  the 
middle  ages"  (p.  415).  This  prevision  of  our  present  theories  con- 
cerning the  measured  rhythm  of  the  thirteenth  century,  is  highly 
interesting. 

MEYER,  P.,  and  RAYNAUD,  G.  Le  chansonnier  frangais  de 
Saint-Germain  des  Pres.  Photo-engraved  facsimile.  Vol.  I  (the 
only  one  issued),  Paris,  1892.  (Published  by  the  "Societe  des  an- 
ciens  textes  frangais".) 

RESTORI,  A.  Per  la  storia  musicale  del  trovatori  provenzali. 
Turin,  1895-6,  8V0.  (Separate  reprint  from  the  "Rivista  Musicale 
Italiana."  Bocca,  Turin.) 

RIEMANN,  HUGO.  Die  Melodik  der  Minnesdnger.  A  series  of  articles 
published  in  the  "Musikalisches  Wochenblatt,"  Leipzig,  1897-1905. 

RIEMANN,  HUGO.  Geschichte  der  Musiktheorie  im  9.-19.  Jahrhun- 
dert.  Leipzig,  1898,  8V0. 

SCHLAGER,  G.  Uber  Musik  und  Strophenbau  der  franzosischen 
Romanzen.  Halle,  1900,  8V0. 

JEANROY,  BRANDIN  ET  AUBRY.  Lais  et  descorts  frangais  du 
xme  siecle.  Text  and  music.  Paris,  1901,  4to. 

RIEMANN,  HUGO.  Handbuch  der  Musikgeschichte.  Vol.  I:  Al- 
tertum  und  Mittelalter  bis  1450.  Leipzig,  1904,  8V0. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Quatre  poesies  de  Marcabru,  troubadour  gascon 
du  xne  siecle,  in  collaboration  with  MM.  Jeanroy  and  Dejeanne. 
Paris,  Picard,  1904,  8V0.  (Separate  reprint  from  the  "Tribune  de 
Saint-Gervais.") 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  La  chanson  de  Bele  Aelis  par  le  trouvere  Baude 
de  la  Quariere  (in  collaboration  with  MM.  J.  Bedier  and  R.  Meyer). 
Paris,  Picard,  1904,  8V0. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Les  plus  anciens  monuments  de  la  musique 
frangaise.  Facsimiles  and  transcriptions.  Paris,  Welter,  1905,  4to. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  La  musique  et  les  musiciens  d' figlise  en  Nor- 
mandie  au  xiue  siecle,  d'apres  le  "Journal  des  visites  pastorales" 
d'Odon  Rigaud.  Paris,  Champion,  1906,  8V0. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Estampies  et  danses  royales  :  les  plus  anciens 
textes  de  musique  instrumental  au  moyen  age,  with  four  photogravure 
facsimiles.  Paris,  Fischbacher,  1906,  8V0. 


174        TROUVERES  AND  TROUBADOURS 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Recherches  sur  les  tenors  frangais  dans  les 
motets  du  xiue  siecle.  Paris,  Champion,  1907,  8V0. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  La  rythmique  musicale  des  troubadours  et  des 
trouveres.  Paris,  Champion,  1907,  8V0. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  "Le  Roman  de  Fauvel."  Reproduction  photo- 
graphique  du  manuscrit  frangais  146  de  la  Bibliotheque  Nationale  de 
Paris,  avec  un  index  des  interpolations  lyriques.  Paris,  Geuthner, 
1907,  folio.  (This  work  marks  the  final  phase  of  the  period  of  the 
troubadours  and  trouveres.) 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Iter  Hispanicum.  Notices  et  extraits  de  manus- 
crits  de  musique  ancienne  conserves  dans  les  bibliotheques  d'Espagne. 
Paris,  Geuthner,  1908,  8V0.  (A  revised  collection  of  articles  which 
appeared  under  the  above  caption  in  the  "Sammelbande  der  In- 
ternationalen  Musikgesellschaft"  [1907].  It  is  connected  with  the 
study  of  the  troubadours  by  the  chapter  on  the  Cantigas  de  Santa 
Maria  by  Alphonse  le  Sage.) 

BECK,  DR.  J.  B.  Die  Melodien  der  Troubadours,  nach  dem 
gesamten  handschriftlichen  Material  zum  erstenmal  bearbeitet  und 
herausgegeben,  nebst  einer  Untersuchung  iiber  die  Entwickelung  der 
Notenschrift  (bis  um  1250}  und  das  rhythmisch-metrische  Prinzip  der 
mittelalterisch-lyrischen  Dichtungen,  sowie  mil  Ubertragung  in  moderne 
Noten  der  Melodien  der  Troubadours  und  Trouveres.  Strassburg, 
Trubner,  1908;  201  pages  4to. 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  Cent  motets  du  xme  siecle,  publics  d'apres  le 
manuscrit  Ed.  IV.  6  de  Bamberg.  I:  Phototypic  reproduction  of 
the  original  MS.;  II:  Transcription  in  modern  notation,  and  ar- 
rangement in  score;  III:  Studies  and  commentaries. — Paris,  Geuth- 
ner, 1908.  (A  publication  of  the  Societe  Internationale  de  musique, 
Section  Paris.  This  work,  which  treats  more  particularly  of  poly- 
phonic music  in  the  thirteenth  century,  is  mentioned  here  because 
it  contains  a  complete  exposition  of  the  measured  rhythm  of 
the  middle  ages,  which  is  that  of  the  motets  and  chansons.  It 
was  the  study  of  this  Bamberg  MS.  which  enabled  us  to  lay  bare, 
for  the  first  time,  the  laws  of  the  said  rhythm,  and  apply  them  later 
to  the  songs  of  the  troubadours  and  trouveres.) 

BEDIER,  J.  and  AUBRY.  P.  Les  chansons  de  croisade.  Paris, 
Champion,  1909,  8V0.  (The  musical  text  and  its  transcription 
into  modern  notation  are  published  together  with  the  poetical  text 
of  these  songs.) 

AUBRY,  PIERRE.  The  Chansonnier  de  V Arsenal  (trouveres  of  the 
thirteenth  century).  Fifteen  quarterly  fascicles  with  thirty-two 
phototypic  plates,  with  a  transcription  of  the  melodies  of  the  trou- 
veres into  modern  notation.  Paris,  Geuthner,  1909,  4to. 


14  DAY  USE 

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